Chapter Text
I had it.
Holy fuck I had it.
The Astral Pulse sat in my pocket, digging slightly into my stomach. The deception had worked. It wouldn’t last long. The second Shroud opened that stupid case he would know, so my window of opportunity was small. I’d have to hide it. Get it away from me.
The Astral Pulse barely weighed anything, but at the moment I swore I could feel every shift it made in the little fabric pocket holding it to my body. It clacked next to my inhaler, slightly larger, longer than the medical aid as I shifted.
“Are you even listening Invisiga- Courtney!”
I refocus on the woman in front of me. Blonde Blazer, tall, arms crossed, looking down at me. I frown at her from my spot on the ground. The stretch of pavement I’d decided to sit on when she had shown up. Her and another hero to transport Chase. Apparently called by Robert.
…
…
He was going to show up any minute. That would be fun.
“I need you to focus,” the hero said.
“You already know all the important shit.” I sigh, looking past her at the sky. “Robert can answer any stupid questions you have.”
“Courtney, this is serious.” Blazer insists, moving her hands to her hips. I track the motion listlessly. “There’s going to be an internal investigation over this. A big one. The warehouse went up in flames after Chase got you out of there, and since he’s a dispatcher this is throwing up all the internal red flags for HQ." She pauses as though considering something before saying, "The Regional Director’s requested an arbiter.”
“That doesn’t mean shit to me.” I grunt, “In trouble with you, in trouble with some admin fuck, it doesn’t change anything.”
“Listen,” Blazer says, crouching down to try and meet my eyes. “An arbiter is a big deal. They're not going to look at just you, they're going to look at all SDN Torrance in their investigation. We’re all in the hot seat for this.” She tries to push down her own emotions and look at me earnestly. “We need to do things by the book.”
…
…
“Fine.” I say, clearing my throat. It feels tight and swollen. Either from the smoke bomb or crying my eyes out.
“I decided to go after leaving the fucking party…”
“Visi! Wait!”
The door slams shut behind me as I charge down the hallway, kicking the door to the stairwell open.
My head is pounding with anger and adrenaline as I take the stairs two at a time.
He’s wrong. He’s wrong! He doesn’t know me, he doesn't know-
Lime green eyes smiling at me.
“Sorry, babe, but we gotta finish what we started.”
He’s right.
No. No he’s fucking not.
I kick a metal pole, one of those parking safety things as I exit the building, The damn thing bends in half, paint and dust chipping off it.
I stalk into the night.
Chase was always an asshole. A dick who didn’t care about us. Who hated working with us. And honestly? The feeling was mutual. An angry old man yells at people because he can’t do shit anymore. Pain in the ass.
…But it was always controlled. Professional. ‘Work appropriate’. It’s why it was always fun to mess with him. Bring him up to the line and force him to be the mature one.
…
…
I guess this is what happens when he stops giving a fuck about what’s appropriate.
…
…
But he was wrong about me. He doesn’t know me. Know what I’ve been trying to do. The fucking line I’ve been walking. I’m a hero.
I’m the most hero-ing fucking hero on the team. Who else would be playing double damned agent with the super genius in the shadows?
I pause in my walk, staring at a wall with some graffiti before swearing.
I’d almost forgotten what we were arguing over.
The warehouse. The Astral Pulse.
He would know. I still don’t know how but he’d find out. Through some hacking or spy shit or just some new super on his pay roll. Each damn check in I saw more and more. More tech, more muscle, more supers with more red damn rings on their bodies. They had no idea.
If I gave him a day, Shroud would have the Astral Pulse. He’d send an army. He might already be doing so.
I begin to run, augment clicking into high gear, the stitch in my side from running after eating that much pizza quickly fading as I jog my way out of Robert's shitty little neighborhood. I shift to a sprint when I reach the main roads, going invisible instantly.
The city isn’t quiet. LA never is, but it's subdued. The middle of the work week is a bad time for parties or mischief. I try to zig zag, change up the route in case Shroud’s somehow able to track me.
Fucking hell. It was exhausting being so damn paranoid. The first few days I tried to figure out how I could do things on the sly. If Shroud had any blind spots I could maybe try to avoid it.
I came up with jack shit. Phones are trackable, cameras are damn near everywhere and there’s the fact that I have his damn augment embedded in my chest. Fucking thing probably had some kind of tracker or signal. Especially if he could disable and enable it remotely..
So I just have to expect I’m being watched all the time. That he knows where I am, every minute of every day. And pray that that’s all they know.
Not the best feeling for someone whose previous coping method with life was turning invisible and taking time to myself.
That’s why I had to do it tonight. I had to get the Astral Pulse, hide it, and maybe then, I could actually tell Robert. Once he had his suit fully up and running, he, the team, and everyone could take down Shroud. Then I could explain. Make him understand. Have him look at me-
The two of them dancing, arms around his neck as Robert looks up at Blonde Blazer, his eyes fucking soft and relaxed, trusting this tall strong hero that-
I nearly slip on a fucking puddle and growl in the back of my throat as I recover, adding more speed, my feet slapping the pavement, throwing it behind me as I ran.
That wasn’t why I was fucking doing this. I was doing it because it was the least I fucking owed the guy. It was the right damn thing to do.
Just because he-
“No one actually expects us to become anything. Do anything.”
“I do.”
“What if we just take all this training you're giving us and go right back to being villains?"
“Are you planning to be a villain again?”
“Ugh, shut up brain,” I mutter to myself as I try to push my legs faster, letting the muscles burn, let the landscape blur as I run and run as though if I run fast enough I can leave my thoughts and memories in some random alleyway.
I’d know they’d been getting closer. Had to fucking watch them while invisible, try to stalk Robert or Chase or whoever Shroud wanted me to follow that day.
It’d been fucking infuriating to know that if I hadn’t fucked up, if I hadn’t gotten trapped under Shroud’s thumb I could have actually tried-
Fuck. No. Down girl.
There was so much fucked up about this. Having the hots for a scarred up, scruffy superhero fresh out of a coma was probably wrong. Having been the person to put him in the coma probably added some other fucked up layer. And going by Waterboy’s reaction the one time I tried to get a game going of Fuck, Mary, Kill with people who worked at SDN, there was also probably some BS corporate workplace layer to it as well.
But god damn it. It just made Robert…. More. A real seasoned hero. A funny good guy but also a real one. Like someone had taken the stereotypical good guy Boy Scout and sent him off to some grungy art college where he learned improv and stopped going to his family’s church.
And then there was…
“Do you like sour patch kids?”
“Normally people don’t think of much when I blow them.”
So there was some chemistry. The good shit kind. Where you feel comfortable with someone in every situation. Where the conversation just flows and it feels right and…
“We all pay for who we were.”
If I got close to him... If I let him get close to me... If I wanted it to fucking work, he’d have to know.
I feel the augment hum around my lungs, the implants feeding oxygen directly into them.
Then what? Would he curse me? Could he stand to be near me? Or would he leave? Or talk to Blazer and get me kicked off the team? Reassigned? I had come so close last month. What’d stop them from just… not caring anymore?
…
…
I continue to run through the city, my eyes not really seeing what’s in front of me.
If I were honest, that was why I was doing this. Why I didn’t directly head to Robert when Toxic had cornered me in the alley all those weeks back. I needed to fix this. Make amends. If I had gone to him then, I’m just the random bitch who got in over her head, tried to fix it by blowing up the biggest superhero in town, and then crawled back to said superhero because I didn’t fix my problems.
But if I did this. If I could bring him the pulse. If I grabbed the little book from home with all my notes on Shroud’s bases, the Red Ring, his plans.
That. That! Would be a good way to undo a fuckup.
I pause halfway through the route, taking a moment to click off the augment and just breathe normally. My lungs quickly start straining, aching. The bit of alcohol still in my system being burned off by the adrenaline and physical exertion as I ran. I fish my phone out of an inner pocket and consider what I was about to do.
Because if I was right and Shroud had some secret way to spy on me, then he’d already know, he’d be sending handpicked Red Ring Goons there that'd arrive at the same time as me. Yeah there were the defenses of the warehouse, but if I was going to sneak the pulse, then I needed a larger distraction. Chaos. And I wasn’t supposed to know if Shroud could spy on me. I’d need to ‘report it in’.
I open navigate to a shitty messages app, one regularly used by the LA crime scene and move to my messages. After Robert and Phenomaman’s crashing of the power base, Toxic had sent a mass message to different squad and gang leaders that had joined the Red Ring over the past few months. A message to a good fifty different mid-tier villains. Some would be like me, trapped under shrouds thumb. Augments or other leverage that’d make it too hard to retaliate. But others… were either not that smart or had outside connections.
Toxic had been stressed, distracted. One mass message to everyone.
In the same chat.
Hey Toxic, got a massive lead for the bossman. Mecha Man’s Astral Pulse is apparently in one of Handles’ safehouses by the docks!
I include a quick screenshot of my maps app and get a small thrill of satisfaction as I send the message. The little notifications of people online clicking up as I send the message to all of them.
Enjoy calculating that shit motherfucker.
The odds were some of the greedy fuckers would show up, either on their own agenda or looking to suck up to Shroud even more.
I put my phone away and pause for a moment… Robert’s dispatch terminal was at his apartment. And the creepy shit apparently tracked all the SDN tech they gave us Z-teamers…
I slip my work earpiece out and place it one ear before heading off again, augment clicking on.
There, now I’ve stacked the deck as much as I can. Robert in my ear, villains to engage the warehouse defenses and distract Shroud. What could go wrong?
…
…
Shit. Did it count if I didn’t say it out loud?
It counted.
Fuck it counted.
Two dozen villains running amok. A massive cargo ship sitting in the middle of the even larger warehouse. I didn’t know they even brought these things out of the water. Fuck. Crates stacked high and different villains scattered over the pile like ants.
What the fuck, it was like every villain in the area had decided to show up. Were they all on Shroud’s payroll? Or had someone just mouthed off at a bar?
The warehouse was a full on firefight. Large automatic turrets shooting incendiary rounds hot enough to ward off even the most resilient superhero. Villains were fighting back, fighting each other, and punching through the different sized cargo boxes, scattering their contents everywhere. It was chaos.
…Probably not all Shroud’s then.
I run from hiding place to hiding place, holding my breath between runs.
I jump as the earpiece speaker cracks to light, Robert’s incredulous voice in my ear.
“Is there a mic on this? Hey! Hey, can you hear me?” He sounds madder than his first day with the mess at Grannies. “The fuck are you doing?”
“Oh, not much. Just lookin' for your stupid ass pulse that's somewhere on this on this big ass boat.” I say, stopping my current run. “But someone musta dropped a pin in the supervillain group chat cause this place is crawlin' with dipshits.”
Me. That was me. I mean I have a plan but…yeah.
I start as a villain tosses one of the massive cargo crates my way. I dive to the side, rolling out of the way.
“Good news is they don't know where it is either.” I try to say casually, looking at where the crate rolls to a stop.
A distant voice crackles in, softer, like their further away from the mic. “You know who’s not good, Beefy boy? You know who’s a real pain?”
…
…
Oh fuck, don’t tell me they continued the party and they’re all still there.
I’m broken from my musings as Robert talks again. His voice firm. “Visi, get out of there now!” he orders.
I open my mouth and click it shut with a growl. Shit. I didn’t fully think this part through. Robert helping me just made it so much more fucking complicated.
When I stormed out, they were literally trying to convince us it was a bad idea to go tonight.
“Look, you're disappointed, I'm disappointed.” I roll my eyes, “I'm sure Chase'll have some shit to talk but I'm here and this is our last chance of getting this thing.”
I pause for a moment, my body tense. I don’t know what I’m waiting for. For Robert to say I’m on my own? To call me stupid? His reply relaxes my shoulders slightly.
“Okay, maybe If I can hack into the system I can trace the energy signal, check the manifest, I don't know, something.” he says, quickly defaulting to a dispatcher mode and focusing on the mission.
I try not to take it personally. Feel a rush of warm affection through my body as he picks my side, stays to back me up. “Something would be great. Yeah, let's start with something.”
He’s helping. He’s staying. He’s supporting me. A thought hits me, causing me to scowl as I watch that bird-themed villain dive-bomb that chainsaw guy.
I try to stay out of the way, working to try and get a count and an inkling of who was actually here. Some of them I’d seen from a distance, either old jobs or just around the Sardine. No one I immediately identified as the Red Ring.
It was tense…watching them. Waiting for Robert to get back to me…or for one of them to find the pulse.
I wasn’t in the mess yet…but when I was, I probably wouldn’t have many other chances to hang back and catch my breath.
“Hey, I'm getting a huge energy reading coming from the captain's quarters.” Robert’s voice suddenly says in my ears.
Captain’s Quarters were like at the back of the ship right? Under the steering wheel? That’s where they were on pirate ships in the movies at least. Fuck. I cannot take my directions from Peter Pan and Pirates of the Caribbean.
“Right. And I'm supposed to know where that is?”
“See that tower,” Robert asks and I peer around the corner to look at it. The ship has a massive section with wide glass windows above the rest. “The biggest one. It's at the top.”
…
…
Of course it fucking is.
“Oh, perfect. So you want me to cross this active battlefield.” I gripe into the earpiece as my pulse starts picking up. This was going to fucking suck, even if invisibility could stop me from being a main target. Incendiary rounds, super powered attacks, flying bodies, the air was filled with crap.
“Look, I didn't want you to do any of this shit.” Robert starts, causing the warmth I had felt seconds ago dry up. “You're the one–”
No. I can’t hear this right now.
“I get it. Okay. Jesus.” I interrupt, taking a deep breath before charging forward. Literally running away from the topic.
I didn’t… ignoring it probably wasn’t healthy and shit, but Robert believing in me, even if he doesn’t support my plan, is still a fucking big deal. It was one of the few bright spots keeping me in and focused. And I need to be focused tonight. I don’t have time to listen to him hem and haw on if I could have done shit differently. It’s me, I’m here. Just gotta deal with it and move the fuck on.
…
…
Isn't that mental health shit? Recognizing boundaries and when to keep your shit in to focus on your job?
I hear someone say ‘Invisibitch’ but I don’t stop to listen as I charge forward, staying close to the base of the stacked cargo crates to keep me out of view of any of the airborne villains.
A fucking eagle screech kills that plan when I stop to take a few breaths.
The fucking flying guy circles around, looking down at me while two guys charge at me on the ground. They’re… not super…. And don’t have any colors, lots of tactical gear like a helmet, goggles, vest.
…
…
What the fuck? They didn’t seem like a gang or cartel…they didn’t even seem super with how they ran towards me.
“Shit. They're onto me.” I report, taking a deep breath in as I run off. Trying to lose them.
“Oh, hey, there's a door to your left.” Robert says, “Lose 'em in there.”
I charge into the weird little cubby the door is in and try to continue through it, throwing my arm onto the door handle.
“ Fuck. It's locked.” I hiss, slamming a fist against the door.
“On it.” Robert responds, the increased speed of his typing picking up through his microphone.
I turn and grit my teeth as three guys charge towards me, blocking me on. Okay… this is fine. Just like morning training. Hold off three assailants, can’t move from where I’m at.
This is fine. I’m fine.
“Feel free to take your time.” I grit out as I step forward, kicking off the railing next to me to get some height and momentum. “Just catching up with some old friends!”
I grunt out the last word as my kick lands and it’s on.
Prism and Robert’s advice on hand-to-hand was a lot different from what I was used to. Instead of trying to hide between strikes, they advocated for a more aggressive style. Instead of using my power to hide, use it to disorient, sucker punch, and to ensure they don’t know where they need to guard. Where my next attack would be coming from.
I spin around and lash out with a punch, going invisible quickly before I drop down, sweeping the legs.
…
…
It’s surprisingly easy. I’m used to the chaos and pain of fighting other supers. Prism, whose light shit could blind and stun you or Malevola who’d been getting better at using her portals to quickly reposition herself and her opponents.
These three… weren’t powered. Or at least not obviously powered. They threw punches and kicks forward, but that seemed to be all they were trained in.
I dispatch the second one and start to work on the third, I begin to wonder just who sent these clowns. Were they just…mercenaries? Hired clowns?
I throw my final kick as I hear a click behind me.
“Alright, Visi! Door's open!”
I glance behind to see two others running towards my little boxing corner.
Fuck… now these were villains. One with some glowing green glowstick lines down his sides while the other had some spiky helmet thing.
I turn and charge through the door. Inhaling deeply as I spy the stairs ahead of me.
Fuck that shit. I blip invisible and put on extra speed and momentum. Throw myself at the railing, quickly using my speed and my leg strength to throw myself upwards, rising a good thirty feet, just enough moment to bring me to the third floor.
I exhale as I quickly scan this level.
No villains, door over there, and a cabinet positioned right…
…
…
Well that’s something.
I quickly move towards it, my gaze angled downwards as the two villains stop at the base of the stairs. Probably seeing if they can hear my footsteps.
I shove the cabinet, the large thing easily dipping over the railing.
“What the fu--?”
Is all I hear before it lands on Glowstick and I turn to run off, pushing through the next door.
I grunt in pain, the sudden burst of speed and strength overtaxing my lungs as I come out to an exterior railing. I fish out my inhaler quickly, taking a puff before a blur in the corner of my eyes forces me to duck.
Fucking Feathers again.
“This fucking guy!” I grumble. What even was his power outside of wings?
“Okay, hey Visi. Lead him toward that speaker tower.” Robert suddenly says, causing me to swing around, trying to find what the fuck he’s talking about. “ ’ve got an idea.”
I eye the distance between my safe platform and the speaker tower he’s talking about. Fifteen feet and then several cargo crate towers scattered around the ship. Oh, this is going to suck.
I put a leg up and then push off, launching me across the gap as I begin to run. Fucking Feathers divebombing me as I begin to be chased across the cargo crates.
“It better be a good one!”
Fucking Feather begins to divebomb me constantly. It’s not too bad as I’m able to blip out of sight, like some invisible matador, easily side stepping his attacks.
Out in the larger warehouse an explosion rings out, another one of the turrets going up in flames. We’re running out of fucking time.
I dive, avoiding again and again, waiting until…
“Visi, cover your ears!”
I do so and duck quickly as the PA system lets out a sound of feedback. Featherdick flying full speed into the cargo crates behind me, falling a good forty feet.
I sigh and drop to the ground, my lungs aching. It would be so simple to click on the augments…
…
…
But then Robert might know.
“Is that why birds fly into shit?” I ask into the calm, chest heaving as I try to pull in more oxygen. I pull out my inhaler again to take another puff. I hadn’t been able to hold in the last brea-
“Visi, look out! Behind you!”
Fucking really?
I dive out of the way as familiar red plasma bolts start colliding with the metal behind me. I start to run again, trying to identify who the fuck was behind me as I– Fucking shit balls! RED BEAM OF FUCKING DEATH!
I dive out of the way.
Just in time.
Cargo crates come crashing down around me, several of the towers knocked over by that blast. Dust and other shit is kicked up, blocking my view and the way forward. Fucking hell, was there even a way through that now?
“Fuck me!” I curse, “How am I supposed to get around that?”
Three more red blasts are shot at me in quick succession forcing me to turn around.
These guys were definitely Red Ring. Unfortunately.
“ Look, hey, just worry about not dying,” Robert tries to reassure me. “I'll find you a way around.”
I blip out of sight and begin to charge towards the woman throwing up the blasts. His voice grounds me a bit. Robert was here. And because Robert was here, I couldn’t just ‘stop’ when I saw Red Ring. I’d have to ‘play’ being the good guy to not ‘blow my cover’.
So I didn’t have to hold back with these guys…..
…
…
I was going to enjoy this.
“And I started fighting more villains. Red Ring goons this time.” I say with a sigh as Blonde Blazer leads me through the front door of SDN Torrance.
It had been an interesting experience, being flown through the city as I continued to recap this shitty night. Very personal as whatever the fuck’s Blazer’s power is made me weightless with just her arm over my shoulder.
Any other time and I’d make some stupid sex joke. Maybe about her magic carpet ride or ask if we were going to fly up to the Hollywood sign.
But instead it’d just been quiet. Me summarizing the evening while she quietly listened.
I sigh again as we begin to climb the stairs to the second floor, probably headed to her office.
The slam of the front doors grabs both of our attention as we spin around.
Robert’s there. Eye’s wide. Chest heaving.
A tightness wells up in my throat seeing him and I feel the little weight of the Astral Pulse in my pocket like it’s a fucking anchor, freezing me to this spot.
His eyes run over the both of us before locking onto my face. And I feel like my lungs are frozen too. Unable to pull in any air. His face looks a mess. The most disheveled and panicked I’d ever seen the man.
What was he going to-
“Robert.” Blonde Blazer says, and he’s no longer looking at me. “Chase is down in the basement infirmary,”
“I-,” Robert tries to say before Blazer interrupts him again.
“This is an official investigation… I need to finish taking Invisigal’s statement.” She says and I turn to look at her out of the corner of my eye. Blonde Blazer’s face is a mask…but there’s a certain… something as she looks at Robert. “I'll come find you after.”
I turn back to Robert to see his jerky nod. His emotions are settling as he gets his breath back.
He takes four deep, slow breaths before speaking again.
“Okay.” He says after a moment, nodding again, this time more fluid. “Okay.”
His eyes meet mine once more and I feel…so much.
…
Too much.
…
I turn away from Robert.
“Let’s go, Invisigal,” Blonde Blazer says, turning herself and we both continue our march up the stairs.
I can feel Robert’s gaze on my back as we’re led up and through the office bullpen. Blonde Blazer’s office door opening to swallow us both.
“What happened next?”
“Heads up! Ride's here.” Robert’s voice suddenly startles me out of my focus. Looking up from the villain I’d just sucker punched.
Is that a fucking-
I let out a small cry of surprise as I jump up just in time to grab wires suspending the massive beam as it swung with the force of a truck. Flattening another villain as it raises me into the air.
The crane seems to speed up, past any kind of fucking safe speed as I struggle to hold on, the tower quickly growing in my vision.
Okay. Can’t hold on, so get off, use the moment. Throw me like a fucking sling. Cool. Cool plan Robert.
…
What the fuck was he thinking!
I throw myself off the beam, using the momentum to guide my trajectory, protecting my face with my arms as I burst through the glass.
I stare at the ground for a moment, adrenaline pumping through my body as I try to just…comprehend the insane shit Robert had just pulled to get me up here. My legs aching from the landing and my arms stinging from breaking through that glass. It had felt… a lot thicker than normal glass.
…Did Robert know that?
…
…
Was this the kind of shit he did as Mecha Man?
“The captain's quarters should be right in front of you!” Robert says, like he didn’t just swing a massive crane at me at some insane speed.
I don’t have time to respond as a quick yellow glow is all the warning I get before the doors in front of me are burst open, driven by an explosion. I roll and dive onto my hands as two yellow colored villains step into the room.
“Tell us where the Pulse is, Invisibitch, before we go full Pompeii on your ass!”
…
…
…Wow… that was trash banter.
“‘Full Pompeii on my ass’? What kinda threat is that?” I ask incredulously, a laugh in my throat. “You gonna gimme diarrhea?”
I push off the ground and go invisible instantly as Pompeii cries out.
I sprint to the Captain’s Quarters, throwing myself into the room. Okay. Barricade. Block.
Buy time.
I grab a crowbar and slide it between the door handles just as they begin to heat up, a red glow to the metal.
Fucking fire bullshit. Where’s fucking Flambae when you need him?
“Where the fuck is this thing because that's not going to hold them for long.” I ramble to Robert as I take a few steps into the weird office I’d found myself in. It’s fucking weird. More like a high end boardroom or study or some shit. Not like a place that should be on a boat.
“It's in the safe.”
I feel a tinge of dread run through me.
“The safe? I don't know how to open a fucking safe.
It’d caused issues when I used to run with crews. Everyone thought that because I could turn invisible I was also quiet and stealthy and had bullshit skills to disarm alarms or break into vaults or reinforced glass.
The amount of lockpicking videos fuckers would send me, as though that was enough to make it a ‘skill’.
Safes are different than locks, dumbasses.
“Fuck, alright let me see what I can do.” Robert sighs.
And then…
…
I have to fucking wait.
I watch the glow of the door continue to grow and grow.
Robert exhales in my ear. “I’d say this was excessive but…” he trails off.
“Just hurry up!” I snap at him. “They’re almost through the door!”
Okay. Okay. I couldn’t panic. I needed to think of a plan. When the safe is open… then what? Get out? Get away? Okay, what after that?
I stare at the red cherry glow of the door and feel a new kind of urgency come over me. This was the moment. Once I was free from this warehouse, I could either take the Pulse to Robert…or to Shroud. And it’d begin.
A chill runs down my spine. This was it. The one point of data. Shroud would be watching me, however he was doing it. I’d need to do… something… anything. Maybe once I’m free Robert would tell me to meet him at SDN? Would that work as a lie?
It felt weak…. But… Did it matter? If Robert was back as Mecha Man, then it was time right? Time to come clean? To-
“Robert doesn’t need to keep going out there with no powers putting his life on the line to make up for assholes like you. He doesn’t need to be Mecha Man to be a hero!”
I inhale sharply as the memory shoots to the front of my mind.
Not an option. Or not an option yet. When I got free of this warehouse, Shroud was going to come down on the Astral Pulse. Hard.
I continue to stare at the wall, feeling frustration continue to build up inside me.
So what? How could I do this? Do this and make Chase choke on his words?
“LA sewers chew up any kind of signal and spit it in your face.”
Sewers…
Click!
I turn around as I hear a mechanical latch. The little door to the safe swinging open. Perfect!
“Safe's open. Good job, Bob.” I breathe as I pull the rest of the safe door open, revealing a little black briefcase.
Robert’s chattering in my ear. “Wait, what? I didn't even…”
“Apparently you did something, cause it's wide open.” I interrupt as I unlatch the briefcase. “Whatever, job done. Take the win.”
“Is it in there?”
The blue glow hits my face and I pick it up briefly, feeling the hum of energy against my fingers as I examine it.
“One glowy butt plug, ready for your ass Robert.” I say as I examine it. It looks identical to all of Royd prototypes from the past several weeks. Maybe my harebrained plan to switch them had some merit.
I put it back into the briefcase and turn around, feeling its weight in my hand. The case is heavy. Maybe with additional shielding or some shit?
Robert begins talking in my ear again as I head to the door. “Okay, so now all you gotta do is sneak past the–”
“Why'd it stop?” I interrupt, frowning at the doors. The glows…cooler. More of an orange than the bright white that had signaled the growing heat.
I reach for the edge of the crowbar and hiss as I yank the hot metal out of the way. I was trying to just pull the crowbar out, but the door came with it, the center fully melted. This didn’t make sense. If they’d melted through the door then why didn’t they.
Bodies on the ground. Unmoving.
…
…
Unbreathing.
“Holy shit. Are they–”
The lights go out.
…
…
There is a difference between criminals and villains. Heroes and the police used them interchangeably, but anyone in the underground knew there are levels. What word you use matters.
Someone down on their luck who breaks into cars to pay the bills? Sure, that’s a criminal. The average thug? A mook or hired muscle? Folks who have to do crime because they don’t have better options? Who looks the other way for the bigger players? That’s a Criminal.
Someone with an ego, wanting more respect than the world’s willing to show them, wanting to break the system and steal shit, and not pay sales tax on it, edgy shit like that? Maybe they’d call themselves a villain. But they're still small timers. They might break some bones, break down a wall or two. But pain isn’t the goal; ego stroking is. They're still human.
Then you get to the actual Villains. The lower-tier ones are manageable. Specific vendettas and plans that don’t involve killing a city block. Still dicey to interact with, a little more megalomania, some powers and plans that are on a bigger scale and fucked up. But overall, it's still manageable. Just watch your fucking step and don’t say stupid shit.
And then there are the Monsters.
There are a lot of reasons why people try to stay within crews and gangs. Safety in numbers bullshit, but in the underworld, it's all about staying with people on your level. The same kind of fucked up baggage and doing the same kind of shit you’re all okay with. There won’t be any curveballs to sell your soul to get a demon power-up for the boss or like suddenly drinking babies' blood. The work will be consistent. There isn’t a risk that your hired muscle would just start tearing random people in half when you were just supposed to steal some jewelry from the mall.
The fact that those two lava guys are dead?
It means that a Monster is here. Someone who doesn’t care about or even enjoys the carnage. The brutality. Monsters don’t care about people’s codes or lines in the sand. They just do what they want. Moving towards their goals, no matter who or what they have to step on to get there. To them, it’s just the cost of doing business.
They were the real reason criminals and gangs stuck together. Why you need someone to vouch for you before you are brought into a job. Because if you weren’t careful, you might just end up putting your life into a Monster’s hands.
And they don’t care if you break.
“Robert?! What's going on,” I say, not having to fake the panic as I ask the generic question.
It’s rhetorical, just something to get him thinking. I know what was going on. It’s the horror movie bullshit, plunging your prey in the dark for an easier takedown. A jump scare into an ambush. Fuck, I’d done some this Halloween bullshit from time to time.
I continue to stare into the darkness, taking a half step back as I try desperately to have my eyes adjust to the pitch black.
Once I start moving…that’s when they’ll strike, lash out from their hiding place that’s between me and freedom.
“I'm here. Just hang on, trying to get the camera back online–”
…
…
Which would make now the best time for it.
I crouch down over the case, quickly opening it, my hand shooting out to fully wrap around the pulse. To smother its light. I shove it into my jacket, into the little pocket that also holds my inhaler.
I try to close the case as quietly as I can, aware of just how…silent the warehouse is now. No turrets shooting or explosions or villains yelling. The place was still. Quiet as the grave.
…
…
Why the fuck did I think of that?
I stand back up just as Robert’s voice crackles in my ear again. A comfort.
“I see you. You're good. Just take one step at a time.”
I begin to move, my eyes straining in the darkness, feeling the railing and using it to guide me down.
My eyes still haven't adjusted to see much of anything. Outside of this room, there’s some light filtering into the warehouse, the ship itself is pitch black. All the electricity was cut off. That was the problem of living in LA, your night vision’s fucked. Too used to street lights, signs, billboards, anything lighting up your way. True darkness isn’t a thing…
Except for moments like these.
I continue through the darkness. Ready for the ambush that I know is waiting for me. But that is okay. I’d gotten the pulse. If I am lucky, I could ‘lose the case’ somewhere. Throw it away from me and escape while they chase after it. Then… maybe I have more time. Shroud will think it’s gone, Robert will think it’s gone, and I can-
“No. Invisigal, stop. Shroud! Behind you!”
I feel a hand grasp my hair before I’m shoved over the railing. I flail as I fall, trying to cover the pocket that the Astral Pulse is in, and hit the ground hard, knocking the wind from my lungs... I hear something, feel something clatter out of my pocket and I panic.
Robert’s in my ear, panicking too.
“No. No no no no.”
At least we were in good company.
I roll over onto my stomach, something hitting the ground in front of me as I desperately try to breathe in.
I end up filling my mouth with smoke and immediately begin choking on it. Some kind of fucking pepper spray-like gas that burned my throat, sending me into a fit.
There’s a red light shining in my eyes and I squint through it, trying to see any sign of blue.
“Hey! Visi! Stay calm. Your inhaler is just a few feet in front of you! Okay? You gotta get to it!”
I pull myself forward, still trying to clear my throat of the gas.
Okay… bad, but not bad bad? Get my inhaler, Shroud’s probably walking out with the briefcase, and I could make my own way out afterwards. A nice visible loss. That wouldn’t be…
I cough again and my vision swims.
Wouldn’t be…
Boots walk past me, a leisurely, slow pace as the move forward… turning to kick the inhaler away from me.
…
…
Was Shroud trying to kill me?
I don’t have time to really focus on the question. My lungs are screaming for air, coughing, trying to desperately clear the smoke that burns. I turn onto my back before rolling over, trying to get to the damn inhaler.
He couldn’t… right? He… he wouldn’t?
My vision swims, blackening and fuzzing out at the edges. I… I reach for the augments. Maybe that would solve it. Could filter out this smoke. I try to squeeze that small muscle that triggers it.
…
…
Nothing.
“No! Hey, Visi, he’s just gonna keep fucking with you but you don't give up, okay?”
Did he know somehow? Is that why he’s doing this? Had I done something to give myself away? Right? I was for all intents and purposes loyal to him. Fuck! I hadn’t even sabotaged him yet.
If I die here, then I am just his pawn.
I try. Fuck. I try. Robert’s voice is still in my ear but it’s fading…like the signal’s going in and out.
I reach for the inhaler, stretching my arm forward. Trying to… to…
“Visi! Visi, you gotta fight!”
I’m sorry, Robert. I’m so fucking sorry., I… I think I fail-
“Please, Visi! Hey, you listen to me.”
I’m sorry, Mecha Man.
“You get up. Get up!”
I wheeze and cough, everything going dark, my head feeling fuzzy. I… I…
“Noooooo!”
…
…
That was a bit dramatic wasn’t it? Screaming over a microphone… like some kinda melodrama show or some…
“The next thing I knew I was on grass. Inhaler pressed to my face.” I say listlessly, trying to focus on the shelves behind Blonde Blazer.
I just breathe… enjoying the fill of oxygen in my lungs, the feeling of the cold air around me. Growing thrill in my chest. I’d done it. It worked. It fucking worked! I’m a the best god damn hero at SDN!
“I stayed like that for a bit and then I heard a thud. I looked over and Chase was on the ground.”
“Chase! Hey! Wake up! Wake up! Please wake up!”
His skin is cold to the touch. His eyes staring unseeing at the sky. I feel the stress of the day, the anger, the frustration, the tension and stress, all of it just tearing to fear as he continued to not respond. I roll him over and he’s limp. Still. Like he’s dea-
“He appeared to be unconscious, his skin cold. Pulse erratic and not breathing.”
“No. NO! No, no. Don’t fucking do this! Please. Please, please, please Chase…”
…When Robert had us all go through CPR again, it had been the other SDN staff who had taken us aside on different days. An hour here and there. I’d gotten Blonde Blazer. She’d try to ‘make it fun’ like she always fucking did by showing how you could do CPR to different songs. Not just staying alive…
…
…
It had worked. It had been fun. Pulling up and throwing out different songs that fit the CPR BPM requirement.
I pressed down and immediately flinched at the loud snap I felt beneath my palm.
“And you know the fucking rest,” I say with a sigh, finally looking at Blonde Blazer properly. She’d been quiet, having grabbed a notepad and had begun writing notes as I talked. “Robert called you, you and what’s their face showed up, took Chase away, and now we’re here.”
Blonde Blazer doesn’t say anything and I slump deeper into the chair at her desk.
…
…
I could tell her… just… pull it out of my pocket and put it on the desk. She was Blonde Blazer; she could keep it safe…
But…
I still didn’t know how Shroud was watching SDN. He had bugged the place somehow, learned to watch up, listen to us….
…
…
The prototypes downstairs. Another backup. Another way to hide it from Shroud. To confuse him when he came for me.
And he would come for me.
The second he opened the case, he’d know. He’d try and find me, watch me, see if I’d given it to anyone.
And if I’d given it to Robert.
Eyes wide, chest heaving, looking like shit froze over in the lobby of SDN.
No. I couldn’t do that to him.
Not now.
“Okay…” Blazer mutters, staring at her notes. She sighs and rubs at her eyes, a rare admission of weakness…. It looks wrong on her. “This’ll go into the official record. The National Office is sending a Compliance Officer to review everything. Until they review everything you’re suspended from work. But Visi…”
She looks up at me, and a new look comes into her eyes.
“Invisigal.”
There’s emotions in that look. Frustration…maybe something else? But whatever tangle of emotions Blonde Blazer is feeling, they don’t show on her face, her gaze level.
My skin prickles uncomfortably.
“Is…Is there anything you have to say for yourself? Any… any reason why you decided to do this?” she asks simply.
I scoff at her question, the bruises I accumulated from the night making the chair uncomfortable and lightly painful. “You know why! We needed to stop Shroud from getting the Pulse! Besides,” I say mulishly. “I was right. Shroud was fucking there.”
…
…
The pen in Blonde Blazer’s hand snaps, dark blue ink staining her hand and the notepad she was writing on.
“You call this being right?” Blonde Blazer demands, her voice angry and she shoots up, floating over the desk to glare into my face. “Running off alone? Nearly getting killed? Losing the Pulse and having to get saved by Chase?!?!”
I feel another rush of adrenalin as my face twists into a snarl. I’m glad for it. The reason to be angry. It was easy being angrier than feeling fucking sorry for myself. Besides, I had the pulse. I did it.
…
…
I won.
“I didn’t ask him to fucking com-” the words die in my throat.
…
…
She's crying. Blonde Blazer. The beacon of hope. The last superhero. She’s crying.
“I…” I trail off, looking away from her face, from her tears. The guilt setting in my chest. A weight that pulls me down.
…
…
The weight feels like the augmentations embedded in my skin.
“No…” I say lowly.
…
…
I blip out of sight and push my way out of the office. Leaving Blonde Blazer in there alone.
Was this the right thing to do? Had it been worth it? Chase is an asshole. An old fucker with a sharp wit and the only one who had been real with the z-team before Robert. He hadn’t liked us and he said so.
“Damn, Chase! Okay!”
Everyone laughing, shouts of surprise as Chase bends down further than any of us had seen him as he danced his bony ass off.
And now he might be dead.
Was it worth it?
I stand in the stairwell and just put my hand in my pocket, feeling the little warm key to Robert being Mecha Man again.
I hadn’t asked him to come. It was only supposed to be me at risk. Me in danger. It…
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
The augments subconsciously kick on, feeding oxygen to my lungs, keeping me invisible and I sink to sit against the wall, burying my face in my hands.
How’d the night get so fucked?
I’d been the hero. The person turning things around for Robert. I’d worked with Royd, texted and harassed the Z-team group chat into coming, and then even with the blowout with Chase I had taken fucking initiative. I found the Astral Pulse! I got it! I got it away from Shroud!
Didn't that stand for anything? Here I am wrapped up in this fucking shadow war bullshit and I won! I did it!
But…
No one knew.
Because if they knew they’d have to learn about the augments. About who I was and what I did last year.
And now Chase might have died saving me. Because of my stupid choices. My past.
My eyes burn with tears I refuse to shed. It was unfair. It was fucked. It wasn’t damn right.
I clutch the pulse in my fist and let its edges dig into my palm uncomfortably. The little shitty thing is just a bit larger than my inhaler.
“…Focus Courtney.” I whisper to myself before standing up. Keeping the augment on as I continue down the stairs, going into the basement.
The day isn’t done.
I needed to get the fake Astral Pulse. Turn that one to a zero. Throw off Shroud’s calculations.
I have to walk past the infirmary to get to Royd lab. I don’t want to, but I peek in briefly.
I stumbled and couldn’t be more glad that I was still invisible.
Robert was there.
…
…
He looked awful. Hunched over his chair, head held by his arms as he stared almost unblinking at Chase and his monitor.
Beep…
I feel like I’m going to be sick.
Beep…
I quickly push myself further down the hall, nearly colliding as Royd opens the door to his lab, massive mechanical arms over his shoulder.
The fuck?
I watch him go for a moment before the doors begin to close and I have to quickly step into the lab.
Was he… trashing the Mecha Man suit?
That’d really fuck my plans… I’d need to follow him after.
…
…
Fuck, that’d really mess things up.
I navigate the lab with ease. Most of the time that Robert was down here, I’d join him, an invisible stalker, to watch him and Royd talk about circuits and shit.
I move to the corner desk and hit the five-digit code to access the test astral pulses.
A fancy as fuck circular platform rises up, seven different astral pulses set in the platform equidistant from one another.
Bingo.
I stared at them all. The Astral Pulse was powerful. All night Royd had painstakingly documented the amount of dumb ass villains who blew themselves up with it.
“If I fucking try to move him, I’m pretty sure half of hims going to stay seared to the metal!” Malevola screams back, the devil woman standing over the open chest cavity of the destroyed Mecha Man suit.
Even the test ones were volatile and unstable.
…
…
Did I want to carry two of these on me?
I pull out the real Astral Pulse and compare the two. Besides the tape on the test pulse, they were identical. Same blue glow, same weird spiral shit inside.
I stand there for a moment, indecisive. What would be best? What would be safest? What could Shroud not predict?
Royd returning decided it for me.
I quickly placed the real Astral Pulse in the socket that the test pulse had sat in.
The platform begins to sink back into the table just as the doors open and Royd walks back in.
He pauses, hearing the mechanical click in the room but not seeing anything out of sorts.
I quickly shuffle my walk back from the tables, clearing the walkways if he decided to come this way.
After a few collisions, you begin to understand where the best places in the room were to invisibly stalk people.
“Hello?” Royd calls into the lab, his eyes still scanning the room.
Shit, he’s paranoid.
I slowly navigate around him, watching as the big man wakes into the room, looking for anything out of place.
I liked Royd. Unlike most of SDN he was happy to talk with anyone on the Z-team. He’d chide us or shake his head if we were acting out but he let things slide, always talking about how we’d eventually get better.
He was too earnest though, none of the sass that Robert had but all of the quiet confidence. “The goodness” that made him more like a tv-show character than anything real. It made me uncomfortable the way he’d look at us. Like we were all good people.
I’m not.
He steps cautiously into the room, eyes trailing over all the surfaces.
“Visi?”
I stay still. People would do this all the time once they knew you could turn invisible. Any odd sound or noise or the hint of paranoia would be attributed to you.
It takes a few moments, but Royd eventually relaxes after checking a few systems. He huffs a sigh and heads into the workshop, muttering under his breath. I follow, keeping my distance but watching his moves. I’d need to wait for him to leave if I wanted to exit unnoticed.
I frown at what I see up against the back wall.
The warped husk of the Mecha man suit is still there. Burns and dried foam on its metal exterior. The head gone, but most of it untouched.
Royd ignored it, walking to a patch of wall and pressing down on a hook. A secret panel opens up, the entire wall swinging open on some large hinge. Revealing a whole third section to the lab.
I raise an eyebrow, my eyes wide. Secret rooms in the already secure lab?
Juicy.
Royd doesn’t go too far in, just a few steps before he bends down and lifts something with a grunt.
My eyes widen as he carries out a second Mecha man torso.
What the fuck?
I’d been watching these fuckers for months and had seen no hint of this.
…
…
Well, to be fair, I mostly watched Robert. If I watched Royd, I’d be trapped in here all day sometimes.
I back up and watch him carry the new torso with ease.
…
…
It’s different. The arms are thicker. Large pauldron thingys bulging out.
I glance back at the husk before following Royd out of the lab.
Was that… was that always just a test suit?
Royd navigates down the hallway, moving around the basement level of SDN.
I’d explored down here my first week. Lots of locked doors and abandoned hallways. Stuff that didn’t seem to be used for anything. The most notable places being the infirmary for long-term care, Royd’s lab and storage rooms.
Royd enters the gym.
I stare as he walks over to the corner that he cleared. Weight benches moved to the side to make room for…
….
…
Wow.
It was a Mecha Man suit. A new one. A different one. The head had a sharp screen for a face looking a bit like sunglasses instead of a faceplate. The legs, torso and everything had an additional layer of armor, wiring, shit I couldn’t even identify. Just…new shit, a lot of it.
Royd sighs after putting it down, stretching and cracking his spine.
“How’re you doing?” a voice says from behind me.
My adrenaline spikes as I turn around, quickly stepping back to push against one of the walls.
Blonde Blazers walking in, her blue eyes scanning over the pieces of suit before looking up to Royd.
“Ah, I’m fine,” he says, glancing back at the pieces of suit. “...considering.”
Blonde Blazer sighs to walk over next to Royd, turning her attention to the suit as well.
“You really think we’re going to find the pulse this easy?” Royd asks, glancing at her. I shuffle against the wall, trying to find a better angle to watch their faces.
“It’s not going to be easy.” Blazer says, walking forward, staring at the head of the Mecha Man Torso, reaching out a hand to place on the blue metal. “But Shroud had the pulse, and he’s been trying to get his hands on it since Astral. He’s not just going to sit on it and not do anything with it.”
Royd sighs, crossing his arms. “So, one way or another we’ll see it, yeah?”
“And when we do, we’ll be ready to put Robert in the suit.” Blazer says quietly, looking intently at the Mecha Man head…like she’s having some weird staring contest with it.
I take a step and stiffen as I feel something crunch under my feet. What the fuck?
I glance down panicked, my brow furrowing in confusion as I see… gravel?
…
…
No…old plaster?
The fuck?
I’m torn from my thoughts as Royd speaks again.
“How is he…?”
Blonde Blazer sighs and turns away from the partially assembled suit.
“I haven’t talked to him yet.” Blazer admits. After a pause, she starts talking again. “I can’t help but feel guilty, you know? It was my choice to hold off. What if I had said yes? Send more than just Visi?”
“You’d be way off base with protocol. Paperwork nightmare.” Royd says, looking at the suit behind her. “Big paperwork nightmare.” He mutters, his eyes distant.
“But wouldn’t that be worth it?” Blazer says…with a tone to her voice… wistful? “I’d take paperwork any day over… this.”
Royd frowns and steps forward.
“Hey, that wasn’t your call. You did things right. Almost everyone was super sloshed at Robert’s place.” He points out. “And it was Visi who decided to go AWOL like that.”
Okay. Ouch.
“It was just… a bad night.” Royd sums up.
Blazer nods at his words and the two begin to walk out of the gym.
“Yeah… she still thinks she was in the right, you know? I don’t think she regrets it.” Blazer says quietly.
I don’t say anything. Looking at the floor, glaring at it. My eyes sting.
Royd surprises both of us.
“She does.” Royd assures her.
Blonde Blazer turns to look at him. I stare at the back of his head. Trying to tell what face he’s making. I don’t dare move and potentially dislodge the…plaster chunks I’m apparently standing on.
“How would you know? Did she come visit you?”
Royd shakes his head. “Nah…” He pauses, “... but people nowadays don’t admit when they're wrong. Not out loud and not to their boss.” He nods and turns to look at Blazer and I can see half of his face.
…
…
It’s not angry… it’s not good. He’s tired and there’s bags under his eyes. But he gives a gentle smile to Blonde Blazer.
“But they feel bad. It eats at them. Taking on responsibility is scary shit.” He reassures her. “It means all fuck ups and mistakes are your own. And that’s what she did tonight.”
…
…
I don’t even know what the fuck to think about that shit.
“Give her time. It’s been a long night. Things in the morning will go a lot better with sleep in everyone.” He says, reaching over and patting Blazer on the back.
Blonde Blazer sighs.
“Headquarters may not give her time. Tim’s demanding the reports, the press is at the docks and an arbiter is coming into the state.” Blonde Blazer brings a hand to her face and rubs at her eyes. Massaging what was probably a headache. “It’s a mess."
They both begin to walk out of the gym properly at that word.
“Hey… you still have that super cup of coffee?” Royd asks.
“Yeah.”
“I’m going to need a cup if I’m going to come into work tomorrow. Mind if I have some of the good stuff?”
A laugh echoes from the hall.
“I can help you with that.”
“My hero.”
Their voices fade, leaving me alone in the gym.
…
…
No… not alone.
I blip into view, turning off the augments. Even with the mechanical implants having been feeding my lungs with oxygen for the last several minutes I feel like there’s not enough space inside them. My pulse pounding in my ears.
…
I fucked up. Royd was right. And that was the fucking rub, wasn’t it. All of tonight was my fault. All of it.
I stare at the partially assembled Mecha Man suit.
…
…
“Might as well try a practice run.” I mutter. My hand is gripped around the test astral pulse in my hand. The corners of this one also dig into my palm.
“I’m sorry. You don’t know what I’m sorry for yet it but you will.” I say quietly. My words barely filling the space in the gym. Dying out as soon as I say them.
“I did it.” I try to say louder. “I planted the bomb that night. I had… “
It feels like my throat is closed. Like there’s some lump I can’t speak around. I shift and I feel how the augments catch on my clothes, the odd angles rubbing up against the fibers of my shirt.
I stood there for a moment. Trying and trying to get another word out past my lips. To put words to all the regret and pain that's just been catastrophizing inside me. The fermenting emotions of guilt, anger, affection. All of it pressing down like…like…
…
…
The augment clicks on again.
Fuck that.
I blip out of sight and sprint from the room, ducking the gaze of Mecha Man.