1:02 p.m.

Unity shook her head as she looked at the monitor in disbelief. “Jekyll, Curie, take a look at this.”

The two other technicians turned her way. Curie was a tall and lanky woman, Jekyll a short and pudgy man. Unity waved to the monitor.

“What the hell…oh please God no.” Curie said in a tight voice.

“Glyph, we need you to look at this, now!” Jekyll called out. Glyph and Centurion whipped their heads around at the crack of Jekyll’s voice. Unity watched as Glyph came striding over, Centurion a step behind. Glyph wasn’t that short of a man but standing next to Centurion, he looked small. Everyone looked small next to Centurion with her 6’10” stature and world-class physique. Glyph looked at the monitor in question. He looked at it with apparent disbelief for a second.

“Shit!” Glyph swore before turning and putting a hand to his head. Centurion, who hadn’t even seen the monitor was already dashing over to the other front line fighters, yelling orders. Pike and the airborne fighters took off into the sky; the Limo, which had been hovering about forty feet over the rendezvous shot off, engines screaming. Unity’s attention was drawn to Chariot kicking into high gear, the support team speeding away. The shooters had their newly assembled weapons in hand and were being lofted by Freya and Quetz over to the skyscrapers downtown. They were outside the clearly evacuated zone but if the Contenders got outside that zone, everything had already gone to hell. Unity was startled to hear the engine of the armored truck they’d commandeered start kicking.

“Tech team, into the truck! Curie, you’re driving, Jekyll’s shotgun with his guns and a monitor to switch between screens back here. Unity, you’re with me in the back. Black Hat has a direct comm link with the van and we’ve got access to each other’s video feeds and sensors.” Glyph was shouting as the three technicians scrambled to grab their gear before hopping into the van.

Once inside, Unity took a moment to appreciate what five technicians could do working together and given some time. The armored truck now carried significantly more armor paneling and fewer weak spots while improving steering and speed. The back of the truck also had two seats in it that were each facing a wall of monitors and had several different computers hooked up in a network. Even better, the seats could be raised through a hatch in the roof where there were two turrets set up for defense. Up front, Jekyll had access to an array of weapons secreted away on various portions of the van while Curie could deploy a number of countermeasures from her seat. On her wall, one of the screens displayed the feed that had caused the frantic response by the fighters.

Local space fluctuations had a distinct pattern to them. When they were stable, as they were most of the time, the pattern was a series of peaks and troughs that were all roughly equivalent in amplitude. When a Contender’s arrival was imminent, the local fluctuations increased dramatically in frequency and amplitude. They’d long ago isolated the pattern that indicated a Contender was coming.

Five years ago, they’d been thrown when the first double rupture of local space occurred within range of sensors. Since then, they’d isolated the moment the fluctuations began and had established a known pattern that proceeded a double rupture. Given two different patterns, several different predictions had emerged for what a three Contender pattern would look like. The leading theory had been by Systemic, a brilliant technician from the Atlanteans. And his pattern precisely matched the pattern now displayed on the monitor. Unity felt fear begin building as the van roared down a random road. They’d already known they were outmatched with two Contenders; how the hell were they going to deal with three?

1:04 p.m.

Glyph: Petra! Problem!

Petra’s eyes snapped open. She was rising from her seat before she was even aware of moving, her hands signaling Transporter to get the hell moving as she concentrated on the mental conversation.

What kind?

Glyph: The fluctuation pattern matches Systemic’s predictions exactly.

I don’t follow.

Glyph: His predictions for a triple Rupture.

Centurion: Shit, we’re moving.

Pike: We’re spreading out and the shooters are being ferried as fast as possible.

Joan: Chariot’s team is away and Bubbles already has one of her fields around them.

Alright, this is why we don’t make plans until the Contenders actually show themselves. Centurion, assessment. Best two man teams of front liners to slow down the Contenders out of the gate.

Centurion: Khyber and Celestis. Titan and Sabre. Myself and Arc.

Delegate and stand by. Glyph, as soon as your people can pin down rupture points, get them to Centurion. Pike, stay spread and watch out for an aerial rupture point. Or God forbid, two. Joan, you’ll need to split your team. Send Amp, Stormfront, and Sledge over to the brick building with the two points. They’re the longest range blasters we have and they can resupply Neutronis from there. Sledge can buy time for the three of them to get clear if one of the Contenders heads their way. Also-

Glyph: Centurion, there’s one aerial rupture, but the other two are by the bomb site and directly in the church as far as we can tell. Pike, aerial rupture is about five hundred feet above the museum a few blocks from the church.

Joan, get your people clear of the church, now! Centurion, take Sabre, Titan, and Arc. Do not let that Contender tear into our team before we even get established. Send Khyber and Celestis to the bomb site and tell them they’re going to be on their own until further notice. Pike, forget about harrying the Contenders on the ground until we’ve got a measure of the one in the sky. We’ll provide what cover we can but expect the aerial Contender to make a beeline for the Limo, they always do. Glyph, I need you to-

The words died in Petra’s mind as she saw the ruptures form on three different monitors. What came out was enough to plant a cold feeling in her stomach.

Shit.

1:04 p.m.

Shit.

Centurion hated dealing with Contenders. Everyone did, but Centurion really, really hated them. They always inflicted massive civilian casualties, even when there were adequate countermeasures in place. And here, there were definitely not adequate countermeasures in place.

“Khyber, Celestis, bomb site, now! You’re on your own until further notice, stay alive! You three, with me, the second Contender is at the church where most of our utilitarians are.” Centurion felt the warmth that always accompanied her powers fully activating. She knew that to others her equipment was now glowing pure white, though it still looked normal to her. She took four steps to get up to full speed.

Centurion was glad they’d put Petra in charge. None of the other team leaders would’ve reacted nearly as quickly or well as Petra had. Part of that was the sheer amount of experience Petra had going up against particularly nasty opponents, Contenders included. Petra had split her front liners into the two best teams to deal with their respective threats given their potential support options.

Khyber and Celestis complimented each other fantastically. Khyber worked with plasma generation and manipulation, top tier superhuman in every physical sense, and an awareness bubble about twenty feet across. He wasn’t invincible, technically. But he could infuse his body with his plasma and allow it to absorb an unreal amount of punishment without suffering any injury or even much pain.

Celestis actually generated solid light, in multiple, simultaneous spheres she could contract and expand at will in a 500 meter radius around her. She could also move each of them independently, making her a nightmare to deal with, since she could and would come at you from fifteen different directions at once. She was also invulnerable to most known forces or energy, except kinetic. Combined with her super speed, super strength, enhanced senses, and limited flight, it made her just about impossible to remove from a fight for more than seconds at a time. Her ‘stars’ as they were called, had a top speed of around 2000 feet per second or 600 meters per second. That was fast enough to smash through most solids and would kill when used at top speed.

Which was why she and Khyber worked well together. Khyber had the awareness, reflexes, and speed to stay in close proximity to Celestis’ stars moving at full speed. He also could take multiple hits from the stars before having to worry about injury. Celestis was perfectly capable of fighting at close range, but she was well aware of just how much more effective Khyber was face to face. Celestis would stay close enough to make life a living hell with her stars while Khyber got in the Contender’s face to dish out punishment.

Centurion was actually more confident in those two slowing down their Contender than she was in her own team. She was invincible, had super speed and super strength, and her spear and sword were hot enough to radiate heat for five feet in every direction and slice through steel like butter. Centurion had been given enhanced senses, but only just enough to track herself. Which meant she wouldn’t be able to effectively track Sabre or Arc. Or Titan, depending on how long the fight went.

Sabre could generate objects made of pure kinetic energy at will and could also unleash it at a distance. His eponymous sabre was one he generated and he often would make sweeping slashes to send out slices of kinetic energy that could cut through entire buildings. He also had super speed, senses, and reflexes a tier or two above Centurion’s. Sabre was the most fragile of her front liners as he was not invincible. Instead, he relied on a suit of kinetic energy he could maintain around his entire body that would absorb most attacks. He was also invulnerable to heat, an extremely useful perk that likely corresponded to the amount of friction generated by his speed and gifts.

Arc was immune to heat due to the nature of his power. He could generate incredible amounts of electricity that he could shoot out or shape into objects. It was a power similar to Khyber’s plasma generation, but Arc’s creations had a far greater range than Khyber’s and he could imbue them with a semblance of autonomy. Arc was not invincible either but possessed the ability to rapidly regenerate his body. If he was directly wired into an electricity source, it was nearly infinite.

Titan was…well, he was Titan. Truly invulnerable, the only thing that could affect him was kinetic energy, though it couldn’t hurt him. Also, Titan’s invulnerability didn’t extend to simply walking through anything in his way. It was more like nothing could damage him or cause him pain. He could create hammers out of some form of purple metal. The hammers responded to mental commands of his, flying back to his hand or sending out blasts of purple energy from the top or faces. The hammers appeared and disappeared with a moment of focus by Titan; he could choose and alter their size as necessary. The growth thing simply put him over the top, though it slowed down rapidly beyond a certain point. The largest he’d gotten was 20 ft in height, after nearly a day of going toe to toe with a Colossus in Montreal alongside Ares and Dominus. As he grew, his strength and speed increased, making him a foe that only got stronger as the fight went on.

1:04 p.m.

Centurion wasn’t concerned with her team’s abilities. They were, without question, more than capable of taking on a Contender and containing it, even without back up. But they would need teamwork to achieve that, because Contenders always made mincemeat out of gifted who couldn’t work together effectively.

Khyber seemed to gel with anyone he’d fought against in the past, meaning he and Celestis would sync up quickly. It was her team that had…confidence issues.

Sabre was fine; he’d been with RMDF for several years and was used to playing second fiddle to the other front liners, covering their flanks and harrying the Contender from a few feet beyond their reach. Centurion herself had similar experience, though her role usually consisted of sealing any breaches that appeared in someone’s defense or a gap in the line against the Contender. It was Arc and Titan that would be problematic.

Arc was a very, very new fighter. He’d gotten his powers during the last stateside rupture four months prior. This was his first experience going up against a Contender and his arrogance worried Centurion. Arc would be likely to underestimate the true danger of a Contender.

Titan was the opposite problem. Like Centurion and Sabre, this was not his first or tenth time dealing with Contenders and he was well prepared to hold his own. But this was the first time where he’d be the only experienced powerhouse on the front line. Titan had always fought alongside some combination of Ares, Hephaestus, Dominus, Attila, Regius, Strongarm, or Hellion. Centurion was concerned he would either be hesitant in taking the lead or too aggressive attempting to make up for the perceived lack of support. Either would present a problem when fighting alongside Arc, who in Centurion’s view was eager to prove himself.

Centurion found herself wishing Excelsior or Deus still were active members of Meridian. Though having either of those two on a battlefield at the same time as Petra and Khyber would end up with someone dying. She sighed as her team covered the block to the church, saddened once more at the death of Caesar. He’d been the only one who could reign in Excelsior and Deus and when he’d died, the Legion had come crashing down shortly thereafter.