Chapter 55 Without You Part 1

“…and it is with the understanding that Law is a weapon, that we enshrine this Living Concept into our Constitution. That it is not a decision-making body in either the Executive, Judicial, or Legislative branch, that its values are not representative of our values. That it is an idea made to be broken…” – The notes of High Justice Mute

“So, there’s nothing?” Ranpo yelled over the loud music of the arcade.

“Nope!” Darius answered as he blocked a high-speed puck, returning it to Josh’s side.

“I even brought his bag…” The crow dipped his beak into the can.

“Thank you very much for that, Ranpo.” Turning to Darius, Aiden asked, “and where did you even find canned water?”

Josh slammed the puck into Darius’s goal. “Good one!” he cheered, before answering, “Bleed contingency stuff, in case plastic and glass don’t work out.”

Aiden paused for a moment, that statement felt familiar, though he couldn’t grasp from where. Shrugging, he instead put down the plastic gun of the sniping shooter, “I give up, can’t beat superspeed.”

“Ohcomeon!” Jun waved her own sniper rifle, “One more round!”

Luther leaned on the machine, “How is your score this shit cuz? This isn’t even a superspeed difference, you barely hit anyone.”

Aiden shrugged as he stepped back, gesturing Luther in, “I guess I don’t have the reflexes for it.”

“He’s lying,” Jun told him, “I once saw him catch a fly with a straw he turned into a chameleon, I bet he’s holding back to be nice.”

“A chameleon is specifically adapted to catching flies,” Aiden replied as he counted his arcade tickets. It was enough to buy two pieces of candy and was significant profit for the arcade given the numerous coins he spent playing rounds.

“Wouldn’t you be better off on the wheel?” Jun asked as Luther picked up the plastic rifle.

“Luck manipulators are categorically banned,” Luther shrugged. “And the chances are so rigged that cheating gets caught easily anyways.”

A loud clanking signalled Josh getting another goal on Darius. “This is getting a bit unfair my friend,” the tuba said, “Perhaps I should swap with Luther?”

Luther groaned as Jun’s score easily and quickly outstripped his own, “Agreed.”

“Yeah, but it’ll get boring if you constantly only interact with other brute types,” Darius said. “Social studies thing, power cliques tend to lead to segregation and stuff.”

“Really?” Jun called out, she disappeared for a moment before returning with a drink from the arcade counter.

“Did you really just go get a drink and-”

With a smug smile Jun shot the last enemy on her side. “Yeap.”

“Maybe we should go back to basketball,” Wren suggested. “Arcade games aren’t really good for our power-to-power matchups.”

Looking at his lightened wallet, Aiden agreed. “I don’t really want to mess with all these expensive machines with my power.”

“Ok, arcades a miss then,” Darius agreed. “There’s a ball court a few blocks from here, actually we can also try tennis while we’re there…”

Darius’s voice faded away as Aiden turned to face the side.

“There’s a Gate opening,” he murmured.

Darius paused, “Where?”

Jun jolted up, “Oh, I’m sensing it now.”

One by one they turned to the wall Aiden was facing.

“We’re not in it, that’s for certain,” Aiden focused. “Doesn’t feel that big… Spread class seems to be Dark or Vlam currently, but it’s getting bigger.”

Josh climbed onto a machine and loudly clapped his hands, “CITIZENS! THERE IS A GATE OPENING FROM THAT DIRECTION! SPREAD CLASS SEEMS SMALL BUT MAY EXPAND! PLEASE SEEK SHELTER!”

The arcade goers glanced towards the wall, then quickly finished their games as they started moving out. The arcade clerk rushed to the PA announcer, turning off the music and repeating Josh’s words over the entire mall. More people started leaving in orderly queues. Aiden took his bag from Ranpo.

“I know where a balcony is, follow me,” Darius rushed out, and the crowded parted to let them all through.

They arrived at the balcony without much trouble, overlooking the shopping district.

Darius started rifling through his drinks bag, “There’s probably a bunch of people caught in it, goddamnit why did I waste your summons today?”

“Stop, all of you,” Aiden said, and they all paused. “I know what you want to do, and we’re not doing it. We’re neither licensed for this type of work, nor experienced enough. We’ve done our due diligence, and don’t need to continue further. Let other people handle this.”

“Didja hear what Darius said? People are caught in it!” Jun yelled.

Aiden quickly checked his bag, his rope, med kit, origami, and mask were all present. He took out the mask, “And they could be completely fine, Gates are random like that, we don’t owe…” Aiden trailed off as he counted the heads.

Five people before him.

“Where’s Josh?”

His ears caught a distant battle cry. As he turned, he saw the sun glint off the golden brass of a massive tuba being worn on a familiar figure’s head.

“That motherfucker,” he whispered. Aiden quickly flipped over the railings, feet sticking perfectly to the wall as he put on his tāotiè mask, “Stay here!” He threw out a rope tentacle that grasped a nearby tree, pulling him forward.

“Ohyou’renotdoingthatshittome!” Jun yelled as she threw her head over the balcony. Saw the height, then wisely decided to disappear towards the stairs.

Aiden made it to the next roof, moving from one to another as he chased after Tuba.

He wasn’t fast enough to catch up.

So instead, he tried something else.

Before he had only used full limbs on his body. Limbs that were far out of proportion and could not express full freedom of movement with his body.

Now he manifested lines of pure muscle fibres, red tattoo streaks that covered his skin, chosen to match the length of his own muscles.

Aiden leapt and flew, he stumbled onto the next roof. His strength far higher than he was used to. Both of his legs ached under the sudden strain, but it was bearable.

He took a moment to breathe and adjust, then moved.

Buildings disappeared as a blur under him, he moved faster than he had ever before. Stumbling more than a few times, but he was always able to recover.

Josh made it to the borders of the Gate.

Then Jun, who poked her tongue at him.

Unlike him, they were true physique powers, who were more than used to applying their powers this way.

Aiden arrived to see Josh poking the Gate’s borders with a stick.

“THE STICK APPEARS FINE!” he proclaimed.

“The stick test?” Aiden said between heavy breathing, “I thought that stuff was pseudo-science.”

“NAY FRIEND! IT IS IMPORTANT TO SEE A GATE’S REACTION TO BIOLOGICALS!”

Aiden wiped some sweat off his forehead, “Trees can’t even be considered human-adjacent, a small rat would work better.”

“I feel fine!” Jun added from within the Gate. “Seems like a low Disruption class, might be a near-earth reality.”

Experimentally Aiden dipped his toes into the Gate. He felt the change in reality, saw Oros tail tip turn to plants as his Hume was slowly drained, but that was about it. He stepped fully into the Gate, following the other two. “Be quiet,” he said as he held his ear. “No sound of screaming or action, someone must’ve caught the announcement because people are moving.”

He heard a loud whirring, turning back, he saw Wren flying in with Ranpo on a large jetpack powered by four rotor propellors. “You guys are mean!” she yelled as she landed. She cracked open a red soda can, and Darius appeared right beside them.

The teen took a sip of the soda, “Thanks Wren. Also, that was pretty hypocritical speech Aiden given that you had a mask ready and everything.”

Jun furiously nodded, “Iknowright!”

“What speech?” Josh asked.

“He’s weird like that,” Ranpo said.

Aiden rubbed his brow, “Fine, we’re doing this, I guess. But do me a favour and wear a mask. The police aren’t going to arrest you but it’s polite to pretend.”

“FEAR NOT!” Josh replied, his voice carried a reverb from being yelled from inside a tuba. “THERE ARE MANY MEMBERS OF THE TUBA FAMILY! I COULD BE ANY ONE OF THEM!”

“I already have one,” Jun gestured at her Nightcore mask.

Wren ripped a page from her notebook, “Heaven’s Door.” It changed to a pair of simple, and matching domino masks; she handed one to Darius before wearing her own.

“Prioritise your own lives, don’t play hero. If you see danger, then run,” Aiden said.

There were serious nods all around.

Darius turned on his phone, bringing up a facetime of Luther and holding him up, “Phones are still working so Luther can luck us all up.”

“I’ll luck you guys in order of durability,” Luther on screen turned to Wren, “Wren, get started on the Bleed testing kits.”

“On it,” she said as she turned two more pages into a pair of suitcases, each filled with various chemical tests, small electronic and mechanical devices, biological substances, and a myriad of other tests.

Jun nudged Josh, “And you tried a stick.”

“These tend to get outdated after a month anyways,” Wren added as she tested a few chemical reactions.

Luther turned to Aiden, “Aiden, you and Ranpo are on overwatch, use your enhanced senses to keep track of the evacuation and communicate changes.”

Aiden raised an eyebrow at the order, “Got it.”

“Jun and Josh, crowd control. Jun go door to door and make sure everyone is moving, Josh if someone acts out of line then throw them back in. Wren, can you cuz?”

She handed Darius a page from her notebook, which turned into a box of earpieces. “Thanks,” Darius said as he passed them each an earpiece and a Quokka Quola can.

Aiden put his on, as well as helped Ranpo wear his.

“If both phone and earpiece fails you can summon me for more rudimentary communication or if you need an extra body for help. You can also use me to get any item from Wren.”

“Be liberal about the summons, cuz’s power is good for mobility, and if he doesn’t drink the can then he won’t get hurt from a hit, only sent back,” Luther added. “I’ll conserve all my Hume for lucking you guys up. When you’re depleted, contact me again. We all got this?”

They all nodded.

“Then go!”

Aiden moved towards a good vantage point he had spotted earlier.

“Hey,” Ranpo called out beside him, “I recognise those crows.”

He followed his eyes, “Give them a warning as well, it’s dangerous here.”

“Why? We can use them,” Ranpo said before splitting off from him. He cawed out to the crows, landing beside them, and quickly reached an agreement. Payment for services rendered. The crows split, and the earpiece blared to life with Ranpo’s voice, “We have more eyes in the sky.”

Aiden reached a vantage point at the top of the building, eyes scanning the ground. Jun rushed by, searching every store and building before moving on.

“There’s a flipped car by one of the alleys,” Aiden called out, “Josh do you have first aid skills?”

“A TUBA KNIGHT IS WELL EQUIPED IN BOTH MIND AND BODY!”

“I got a first aid kit from Wren.”

“THAT WOULD HELP!”

Josh made it to the car crash, cracking open the can and summoning Darius who handed him a first aid kit before they extricated the two people trapped inside. They were fine, just rattled, once out Darius handed Josh another can before slapping himself and returning to Wren.

“2nd street,” Ranpo called out, “Old lady in a wheelchair.”

Aiden glanced at the spot Ranpo pointed out, but it was behind a building and in his blind spot.

“I got it!” Jun soon rushed out from behind the building pushing the old lady, handing her off to another civilian who helped push her the rest of the way.

Aiden’s eyes looked over the main evacuation, orderly, not a rushed stampeded like he was half expecting. But then again those were expectations of his old world, not of this significantly more insane one.

He got a message from his phone; Luther had just finished lucking both Wren and Darius.

LuKing: Want some chocolate?

He replied, going through all of Luther’s conditions and letting him roll down the digital dice they used as a medium.

|

Jun yelled into a restroom, “Anyone in there! We’re in a Gate! Finish shitting!”

She heard someone hurriedly wiping. “What were you on your phone? Evacuation is outside, Gate seems pretty safe so far, but don’t bet on it!”

Then she started moving again, the world passing by in slow motion as she kept yelling, “Gate! Start evacuating!”

She found a lost child inside of a supermarket. “Where’s mom?” he asked.

“I dunno but we gotta get you out of here quickly!” She picked him up and rushed out towards the main crowd. There was a woman calling out in slow motion, “Is this your kid?”

Her face turned bright with recognition, “Joooooooohhhhhhnnnnnaaaa-”

“Muuuuuu-” the kid reached out to her from her arms.

She shoved the child into his mother’s arms, “All in a day’s work, don’t worry!”

“Jun keep an eye on your Hume,” Aiden’s voice said as she cleared four more buildings. “Last I checked you’re not good for long stretches of such sped time.”

She slowed to a stop, “It’s alright! I can keep up 2 times all the time, I’m just doing 8 times now! Nowhere near time stopping. It’s just 2 times but more!”

“That math is only technically true,” Ranpo replied in his dry voice.

“KNOW YOUR LIMITS!” Josh yelled so loudly that she heard it echo from a few blocks away.

“Don’t worry! I’ve been practicing!” Her bouts with Puppet Rain needed her to keep a minimum of such a speed. “We need to focus on speed anyways!”

Unlike them, a normal human would get changed only a moment after being in a Gate, and the Bleed would only get worse the longer they were inside.

She had to be fast.

Jun found a duo helping a one-legged man on crutches, she got the man on a piggyback and rushed out, before returning to the other two and directing them out.

Her breathing was getting heavy as she rushed through building after building, eventually she had to pause for a moment. “God I should’ve listened to Trist,” she muttered between heavy breathing.

Time was still sped up, it allowed her to recover faster, though it made no difference to Jun. She rested a minute in her perception, which was only a few seconds in reality, before she continued on running.

She rushed into a building, yelling “Evacuate! There’s a Gate…”

Jun paused as she took in the scene, a large number of civilians were sat on the ground, each holding a grenade in their hands. Armed masked men surrounded them. There was a man who appeared nude but was covered head to toe in some sort of TV static looking paint held a smoking gun.

A woman in a suit lay dead on the ground beside him. She was a bank teller.

“I thought we agreed no killing!” one of the masked men yelled at the painted man.

“Shut up,” the painted man replied, “the fucking capes are heeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrreeeee…”

Time froze. “Bank robbery!” she yelled into her earpiece as she rushed the painted man. The other men showed signs of anxiety, worry. They were normal baseline humans, who knew they were in a Gate.

The only person unworried was the painted man, he was the only metahuman here. He was almost frozen as Jun reached him, readying a punch like Trist taught her, directly aimed at the chin.

Her fist sunk into the man. Her hand turned two-dimensional on his skin, Jun realised upon closer inspection, the staticky looking paint on the man’s body wasn’t static, but numerous painted items and objects overlayed and mushed so closely they looked undifferentiated from a distance.

The man moved, slowly raising the gun towards Jun. She moved to bat the hand away, but paused before contacting his skin, instead stepping back and trying to pull her free.

There was some give as a bit of her arm was pulled out of his body, but not fast enough as the man pointed at her and fired.

The bullet moved slowly however, about as fast as a fly, and she easily dodged it. With a final yank, she pulled her hand free. Jun leapt back, grabbing one of the bank pens and throwing it like a dart at the man.

It sunk into his skin, turning two dimensional.

‘Like a tattoo,’ she thought. ‘He’s like Aiden, no. The exact opposite.’

She leapt back, time slowing back down.

The man pointed a palm at her, and the pen shot back out towards her, she dodged it easily.

“Pen wasn’t that fast, she’s only a Type I speedster,” the painted man said. The others raised their guns towards her.

Time slowed again.

Jun ran up to the painted man and grabbed his gun, her hand didn’t sink in, good. She tried to yank it out of his hand, but his grip was iron. So instead, she turned to the goons.

Her first chin strike landed cleanly, twisting the head. Even if she wasn’t striking with more power from being fast. It was a knockout strike directed at a human weak point and she had all the time in the world to line up her punch. The first man began to fall, as did the second, then third, then fourth.

By the time the first man fell to the ground, all eight goons were concussed and falling.

“What did you say?” Wren asked.

She mentally cursed, she said it too fast. “Bank robbery! Casualties, hostages, there’s a cowl!”

The painted man looked at the fallen men, scoffing as he grabbed a bag full of money. “Useless.”

The bag was turned into a tattoo on his skin, layered on top of countless other tattoos.

“Ranpo, you’ve got overwatch,” Aiden said.

Jun cracked open Darius’s can, and the teen appeared right beside her. “Oh, shit cuz, this is a situation.”

“Get the hostages, I’ll hold him off,” Jun said.

“Can’t we agree to let me go and I let these hostages go?” the painted man asked, before he pointed his gun at a hostage and fired.

Time slowed again, Jun grabbed a chair and batted it in into the bullet. Wood splintered as the bullet buried itself into the chair, and she slammed the remains into the man’s chest. It was absorbed just like the pen.

She grabbed one of the sharper splinters still floating in the air and stabbed it into one of his eyes.

It turned into a tattoo on his eye.

“God damn it why are tattoos such a broad concept,” she muttered.

Time returned to normal.

Darius helped one of the people up. Their grenades had no pins. He took it from their hand, holding the safety lever down as he stepped far away from them.

He tried to throw it.

It exploded the moment the safety lever rose.

The person cracked open the soda can Darius had given them, and he reappeared. “Jun! These things are rigged to explode instantly!”

“Ya think!?” she yelled back as the painted man fired into the crowd. She batted the bullets away with one of the stanchions, “Stop shooting the hostages!”

“What else are they forrrrrrr…” the moment the painted man opened his mouth, Jun grabbed a letter opener and rushed him. Angling the blade, she stabbed the inside of his mouth and drew blood.

He had the same weakness Aiden had.

The man fell back slowly, and she stabbed again, piercing his tongue, she pulled back and stabbed again. The third time the angle was bad, and the blade bounced off a tooth and touched his lip, getting absorbed instantly.

Time returned to normal. The painted man grabbed his mouth as blood dripped out of it. Dropping his gun.

“How’d you like that!?”

The man screamed with his mouth closed.

“Not too mouthy now huh!?”

He reached for his gun, but Jun was faster, kicking it out of his reach. It was a feint however, as a fresh gun popped out his back and fired at Darius.

Jun rushed and parried the bullet, just as the man’s back exploded outwards with debris. Bikes, cups, fans, an avalanche of random crap that would make a hoarder jealous forced Jun backwards.

Then she sighted the grenade hidden behind all of it, its safety pin in the midst of popping off.

She moved. The safety pin popped off mere inches from her hand, but she grabbed the grenade and held down the safety lever. Looking around, the people were clearing out thanks to Darius’s direction, who had taken upon himself to hold every grenade they had, but not fast enough. There were still enough people in dangerous vicinity to the cowl.

Jun ran to the window, making sure there was no one outside, and saw her reflection.

She was running low on Hume.

She couldn’t afford to speed herself fast enough to assuredly dodge the grenade, not if she wanted to keep the cowl from hurting the hostages.

She threw the grenade, hoping she was fast enough as is.

It exploded as she jumped back. A piece of shrapnel slashed her cheek, a second buried itself in her left forearm, her hand was slashed to ribbons.

She got out before the rest hit her.

Nightcore’s regeneration kicked in quickly, but her left hand was out for the moment.

The painted man turned to her with a smug smile, blood dripping down his chin.

Jun picked up another stanchion, holding it like a bat with her remaining hand. Both it and Daycore were still up, but could she even really ‘touch’ him to slow him down?

She saw the background shift, turned grainy like an old photo.

Or Aiden’s cephalopod camouflage.

A brownish light green snake bit into the painted man’s side. Actually bit into him.

Jun’s mind paused in shock before she realised, “You have higher Priority!”

The cowl reacted quickly, a sword spun out of his arm, decapitating the snake, and slashing towards Aiden, Jun was faster, parrying the blade with the stanchion. They both leapt back, creating distance.

Aiden reabsorbed the remains of the snake, leaving only a cut piece of rope. “That was an inland taipan, tell me that’s one of the more venomous ones.”

She whooped, “Fuck yeah it is!”

The painted man tore off the head of the snake, holding his side in pain.

Jun raised her fists, “We got him now! Let’s jump him!”

“No need, he’ll die without antivenom, and only Notebook can provide it at this moment,” he said loudly.

She looked at him, mouthing, “That’s what Wren named herself?”

“And they say my names are bad,” he mouthed back.

“So, sit tight,” Aiden said. “You won’t die immediately, so we can wait until you’re in cuffs.”

The painted man gritted his teeth as he held his side. “Fuck that,” he grunted.

“Jun help Darius with disarming the grenades, I’ve got him.”

“Shouldn’t I stay here?”

“People’s lives take precedence, they’ve already spent too long inside a Gate, who knows what horrific side effects they may experience. Get them out,” Aiden replied.

“He has a ton of shit on him, be careful,” and she left.

The man stood up, leaning on a wall as he clutched his wound.

Tentacles animated themselves around Aiden. “I was being kind when I told you to stay still, I am the type of person to go for the kill immediately.”

“Funny thing,” he chuckled as he got up, “same here.”