Demigoddess chased the glowing green gorilla as it sped through the corridors. Behind her, Elementus generated a whirlwind around his stone body and flew over her. Raising his hands, the stone man blew fire from his mouth as he altered the oxygen content of the air in front of him. This allowed him to direct a wave of fire to travel over the gorilla and ignite the floor in front of it.

The Gorilla stopped at the wall of flame and turned to flee, only to be met with Demigoddess. The red clad superhero grabbed the gorilla’s head and began sucking out its body heat. The gorilla started punching her, but she was able to absorb the energy from each punch, leaving her unharmed.

Soon a layer of frost covered the gorilla’s head, and that frost slowly but surely crept lower and lover, the gorilla’s body getting stiffer and stiffer. After a minute, the entire beast was frozen solid, and Demigoddess pulled her hands away with a smug smile.

Elementus, hovering above her, then took a deep breath and blew out a frozen mist that extinguished the flames. Normally he’d just pull oxygen from the air to put out the fire, but Demigoddess was too close, and she needed that oxygen. When he finished, the corridor was filled with a layer of frost. Elementus then landed and turned to Demigoddess, scowling as the sound of his whirlwind faded.

“Alright,” he said. “We got the gorilla. Now, can we…”

Before he could finish, they heard a sound, like a continuous bolt of lightning that went on for a few seconds. The two of them looked in that direction, surprised, until the lightning eventually stopped.

“What was that?” asked Elementus. “That sounded gigantic.”

A moment later, Elementus got a message on his smartwatch. Once he checked it, the stone superhero gave a sigh of relief.

“They did it,” he said. “They stopped the bomb.” He gave her an angry look. “No thanks to you.”

Demigoddess huffed, offended, “No thanks to you either. I didn’t see you chasing after the bomb.”

“I don’t have any abilities that can disable a bomb. Even ice powers have countermeasures these days. Besides, Paramount asked me to keep an eye on you.”

“And you just do what Paramount says like a good little errand boy,” she said spitefully.

Demigoddess turned to walk away.

“Hey, I’m not done with you!” said Elementus. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I need some air,” said Demigoddess.

“Now?” asked Elementus, incredulously as he started following her. “Right now?”

###

In the U.H.E. control room, people cried out in cheers once they had word that the bomb was disabled. Animage had smiled momentarily, but then went back to controlling insects around the hostage situation, her eyes closed as she focused. A moment later, Paramount contacted them, the room hushing to listen.

“This is Paramount,” he said. “Where are Elementus and Demigoddess?”

“Just a second,” said a technician, who frowned. “I see the creature that caused the generator leak frozen. I’ll send a hazmat team to put it into cold storage. As for the superheroes…that’s strange. Elementus seems to be following Demigoddess out of the building.”

###

“You’ve always been like this,” said Elementus, still in his stone form as he walked after Demigoddess. “Are you even capable of thinking before you act?”

“Sure,” said Demigoddess.

“Then why don’t you?!”

Elementus followed Demigoddess outside. Normally these exits would have security guards behind safety glass, but guards were noticeably absent and the exit blast door wide open to facilitate the evacuation. Outside, one could see the vast majority of employees in the distance, at the end of a parking lot, keeping outside the estimated blast radius of the bomb. With them were superheroes who’d been at headquarters but weren’t official on mission. Elementus and Demigoddess didn’t any of them, however, as Elementus followed the other superhero.

“I’ll bet that lightning blast was SteelStar,” said Elementus. “I’ll bet they found a way to disable the bomb using his power.”

“Good for him,” said Demigoddess irritably.

“What if he hadn’t been able to? What if they’d needed you? If we couldn’t stop the bomb other ways, you’d have been our only hope.”

“As we already established, they stopped the bomb. It’s a moot point.”

“No, it isn’t,” Elementus spat. “It’s not a moot point that we have a coward on our team.”

Demigoddess stopped, just for a moment, as Elementus stopped behind her, scowling. Her eye twitched as she grimaced, but then Demigoddess started walking again, Elementus following.

“Coward, you say?” she asked.

“You heard me,” said Elementus.

“Taking on that mutant is cowardly, then?”

“We both know that Gorilla couldn’t hurt you. You let it lead you away because it was an excuse to avoid the Tholatite explosion. I think what Paramount said got under your skin.”

Her eye twitched as she walked. Demigoddess would never let Elementus know just how on the mark he was, but knew if he blabbed about his suspicions, it would be bad for her. Still, she had a way to deal with Elementus, and the first step was leading him to the edge of this U.H.E. parking lot, right next to a brick wall.

“Mr. Anderson isn’t going to like this,” said Elementus. “I can promise you that.”

Demigoddess stopped and finally turned to face him, crossing her arms as the wall stood behind her.

“You’re going to bring the boss into this?” she asked.

“Of course I am,” said Elementus. “You messed up. Worse still, you messed up and you don’t care. If you’re going to make excuses to slip away any time there’s even a hint of danger to you, then…”

Without warning, Demigoddess slapped Elementus’s stone face, infusing the blow with just enough kinetic energy to make him stagger, his feet digging into the pavement below them. Instinctively, a very shocked Elementus counterattacked, punching Demigoddess in the face.

Naturally, he could feel all the momentum of his punch just disappear as it made contact. And yet, despite that, Demigoddess suddenly flew backwards, crashing through the brick wall behind her and landing on a sidewalk. Through the new hole in the wall, Elementus could see scattered people. Most were onlookers wondering what was going on with U.H.E. headquarters while keeping a safe distance, and naturally the sound of a wall breaking got their attention. Everyone looked to see what was going on, only to find Demigoddess lying on the ground.

Elementus stood there, confused. He was certain she’d absorbed the kinetic energy from his punch. If she hadn’t, a blow like that would have killed her. He’d reacted purely out of instinct from being attacked, and yet Demigoddess lay there, terror written all over her face as tears fell from her eyes. Looking closely, one could see a few drops of blood on her lip as she raised her hands to guard herself. As people gathered around her, she looked up at Elementus, her lip quivering.

“How could you?” she asked, terror in her voice.

“What?” asked Elementus, confused.

“What did you do?” demanded someone from the crowd.

“What?” Elementus asked again. “I didn’t…”

Before Elementus could explain what happened, people were yelling at him angrily as others attended to Demigoddess. Elementus backed away as he was crowded, rendered speechless as he looked back and forth between livid faces.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

###

Once the hostage situation began, news vans started arriving at both the building where the hostages were being held and U.H.E. headquarters. Naturally, every news reporter at the latter site saw SteelStar blasting electricity up into the sky. This, at first, dominated the reports with speculation on what caused the lighting, but the story was quickly taken up by something else that quickly went viral online.

Patrick Powell from Hammerhead news reported on the situation as well.

“I’ll bet it was SteelStar,” said Patrick to the cameras. “I’ll bet you anything he’s frustrated being cooped up and shot lightning in a temper tantrum. I think we’re lucky he hasn’t tried to attack Sister Nature head on and gotten hostages killed. I think we all know how reckless he is. All I know I don’t trust Paramount to…”

Suddenly he was signaled by one of the staff behind the cameras, a sign that meant breaking news.

“Hold on,” said Patrick.

The reporter listened to information from an earpiece. The more he listened, the more surprised he became.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Patrick. “We have a new development. There seems to have been an incident between Elementus and Demigoddess.”

The news showed videos, posted to various social media accounts, of Demigoddess cowering on the ground, her lip bleeding, as an angry mob confronted Elementus, who eventually made a whirlwind and flew away. Patrick shook his head.

“I don’t believe this,” said the reporter. “It seems that, in the middle of a hostage situation, Elementus has attacked Demigoddess.”

###

SteelStar sat up suddenly in the hospital wing, looking around with organic eyes. There were no other injured, just a single man in a doctor’s uniform. The man also wore a white mask with a red caduceus, the twining snakes going between his eyes and the wings just under his eyes. The Medical superhero looked over at SteelStar and spoke with an energetic tone.

“Ah!” said the doctor. “You’re awake.”

SteelStar groaned, suddenly aware of how tired he still felt.

“Dr. Stitch, I presume,” said SteelStar. “How long was I out?”

“Not long,” said Dr. Stitch, walking over. “About forty minutes. Here, let me take a look at you. How are you feeling?”

Dr. Stitch spent a few minutes examining SteelStar, going through the usual routine. When he finished, he extended a thread from his fingertip, wrapped it around a notepad, and pulled it to him, taking notes.

“You’re in perfectly good health,” said Dr. Stitch. “So you’re free to go. Paramount left a power cell for you to recharge by the door.”

SteelStar noted the power cell, a metal cylinder with a glowing top, but before he left, he asked, “Can you update me on the situation?”

“They tried contacting Sister Nature again,” said Dr. Stitch. “She still isn’t giving any demands, though that isn’t surprising. At this point we’re waiting for The Silent Wraith and Animage to find a way inside and take down Sister Nature.”

“Were Paramount and Speedshock able to catch Black Ash?” asked SteelStar.

“I’m afraid not. He managed to collapse a tunnel behind him as he fled. Clearing the debris out would have risked civilians above ground.”

Dr. Stitch then stopped writing and sighed, “I suppose I should also tell you…there was an incident between Demigoddess and Elementus.”

SteelStar raised an eyebrow.

###

“See,” said Elementus. “Right here. This is where my feet dug into the pavement when she hit me.”

Paramount, SteelStar, Speedshock and Elementus stood in the parking lot next to the hole in the brick wall, the transforming heroes wearing their organic forms. They could, indeed, see the cracks in the stone where Elementus had stood, and while SteelStar and Speedshock looked concerned, Elementus wore a pleading expression. Paramount knelt beside the cracks rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“And Demigoddess struck you first, you say?” asked the elder superhero.

“Yes sir,” said Elementus. “My face is still sore from the impact.”

“Where is Demigoddess now?” asked Speedshock.

“She went back to Sonnelicht,” said Elementus.

“Okay,” said Paramount. “I can spare a technician to get the security footage from that time and upload it to social media. Won’t be able to do any press release about it until the hostage situation is over, however.”

Elementus nodded, “So now what do we do?”

“Right now,” said Paramount. “Sister Nature has no demands, and we have two superheroes observing the area. I trust silent will come up with something. All the rest of us can do right now is wait.”

###

Silent, still cloaked, maintained his post atop a building, watching the oil covering building across from him with an unwavering gaze beneath his mask. With no shots available to him, he kept his special tranquilizer rifle over his shoulder. He and Animage had covered just about every possible line of attack they could and there wasn’t a single way in that wouldn’t disturb the oil. Naturally, Paramount had updated Silent on the situation concerning the bomb. Silent couldn’t believe that even Sister Nature would try something so bold as to try and blow up U.H.E. headquarters. They had to end this quickly.

Silent had dealt with Sister Nature before, but it was always with different superheroes, and thus different powers. It would take a while to come up with a plan considering their current roster, but Silent considered his assets as best he could. Speedshock, Paramount, and SteelStar couldn’t just run or fly in. Sister Nature would sense the moment they broke the oil and would start killing hostages. Speedshock would probably be killed by the automatic explosions by the entrance, as would any of Animage’s animals. Demigoddess would survive, but she didn’t have the speed to get close to Sister Nature. Silent had, naturally, kept track of any superheroes at headquarters they hadn’t official recruited for this mission, but none of them powers stuck out to them as particularly useful for this situation.

The only other asset Silent figured they might use was Elementus, who had ice breath. Ice powers were historically useful in neutralizing Sister Nature’s oil, but Elementus’s ice was limited, and all other ice users were on other missions around the world.

Still, even knowing he had limited options, Silent considered every angle. Slowly but surely, a plan started to form in his mind. As he considered it, Silent could just barely make out Sister Nature inside the building. She paced aggressively, and even with a mask on, one could tell that she was upset.

###

The animal mask clad henchmen watched their boss pace aggressively. They’d just gotten word from Speedclaw that the bomb hadn’t gone off, and that raised the stakes drastically. Now the heroes had significantly more time to counter them. Worse still, the heroes now knew their true objective, making things even harder. Currently, Sister Nature was waiting for word from Biomaster, as everything depended on his creatures.

“Lady Nature?” asked one of the henchmen hesitantly, wearing a lizard mask. “Couldn’t we just…I don’t know…plant a bomb and demand they not interfere with it?”

Sister Nature stopped, going eerily still for a moment. She then slowly turned her head in his direction, making the henchmen take a fearful step backwards.

“I…I mean…” he stammered. “We have hostages, don’t we?”

Sister Nature’s voice practically growled. “Do you seriously think they’d agree to just let themselves die? They’d never trust us not to kill the hostages once they’re dead. Might as well tell them to kill themselves. It would have saved us all this trouble.”

She took a step forward, and he took frightened step back.

“Do yourself a favor,” said Sister Nature. “Leave the thinking to those who are in charge and do as your told. Do I make myself clear?”

The henchmen swallowed, “Yes, Lady Nature.”

Sister Nature went back to pacing aggressively. This whole ordeal would be a waste if they couldn’t pull this off, and things were getting dangerous for them.

Finally, Sister Nature’s communicator buzzed, and she pulled it to her ear, “You failed.”

“Harsh,” said Biomaster on the other end. “But not untrue, I suppose.”

“You know,” said Sister Nature. “This would be so much easier if we could remote detonate.”

“We talked about this, Mrs. Nature. Even if we could remote detonate, the Tholatite takes time to prepare, otherwise the explosion is too small. One the process starts…”

“It’s nearly impossible to move without exploding prematurely,” said Sister Nature, irritated. “Yes, I remember.”

“Then please act like you remember,” said Biomaster. “Now, we did talk about our backup plan, didn’t we? I know it’s a bit of a longshot, but I’ll get started on that right away. In the meantime, you should give the heroes some sort of demand, something to keep them busy. Make it look like you’re giving up.”

Sister Nature gave an exasperated sigh, “Fine. Just get it done.” After a pause, she asked hesitantly, “Are you sure about this creature you gave me?”

“I’m sure,” said Biomaster. “If they do manage to tranquilize you, it will wake you up. You have my word.”

Animage was skeptical of the creature hidden in her jacket but supposed that it was a decent backup plan. Still, the thought of keeping this thing on her still made her skin crawl. It felt wrong to work with an abomination like this. Mankind abusing nature was against everything Sister Nature stood for, but Gaia-born would never see its dreams fulfilled with the U.H.E. protecting humanity.

One way or another, Sister Nature would see these so called heroes removed from her path.

###

Paramount held up a small, clear vial, looking at a glowing yellow worm. SteelStar, Elementus, and Speedshock watched him with concerned looks on their faces. Occasionally, the worm would give off a small spark of electricity, contained within the vial.

“You found this embedded in the security system?” Paramount asked.

“Yes,” said a technician. “It had bit into the wires. Genetic samples suggest both worm and electric eel DNA, along with some strands we couldn’t identify. We think this was how they fooled security.”

Standing in the control room, Paramount shook his head. Biomaster had always been creative with his monsters, but something like this was especially dangerous.

“We’re going to need a countermeasure for this,” said Paramount. “But I don’t…”

He was cut off by beeping. Elementus’s smartwatch was going off, and when he looked to see who it was, he paled.

“I’m sorry,” said Elementus, “I have to take this.”

Elementus turned to leave the room, and the other shared looked between each other, wondering what was going on.

Elementus found a secluded spot in the U.H.E. hallways where he confronted the face of his boss, Henry Anderson, in his smartwatch. The older man wore an intimidating scowl, his fingers tapping on the desk in front of him.

“Demigoddess told me what happened,” said Mr. Anderson.

“No!” Elementus protested. “She’s lying! She hit me first. I just reacted out of instinct.”

“Maybe she did, but right now the incident is going viral in real time. Everyone sees the aftermath of you did, but if she really attacked you, then no one saw it. I shouldn’t have to remind you how your reputation affects our advertising. The fact of the matter is that all the online heat is directed at you, so it’s your responsibility to cool things down. I don’t care how you do it. Just do it. You know the consequences if you can’t.”

“But I…” Elementus stammered.

“You…know…the consequences,” Mr. Anderson reminded him.

Elementus’s lip quivered for a moment, “I…y…yes sir.”

Henry Anderson disconnected and Elementus was left standing there, his arms falling to his sides as he looked at the floor, a dejected look on his face.