An Attempt in Broad Daylight

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Chapter 1

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The early morning sun bathed Kyoto in golden light. The tree-covered mountains gleamed like spires of emerald. Office buildings shook with the stamping of feet. The streets were lightly occupied by cars, most motorists having long since come to their place of work. Here, a black town car owned by the government, wound its way through the streets. It took a most circuitous route to its destination.

Takara Satori sat in the back of that town car. He held an open manila folder in his hands. The folder contained a proposal from the Quirk Registration Service. The proposal was, purportedly, an insane overreach by the QRS’s resident psychopath, Dr. Saraki.

Kizawa had asked Satori to review the folder and tell her whether there were legal grounds to block the proposal without it going to a vote. He would meet with her legal counsel first thing in the morning. He needed to be able to answer any questions Kizawa’s lawyer might have.

Satori wouldn’t be able to. He had yet to turn a page. His stomach was in knots. Tonight was the night. It was the night he was going to meet with Midas. The night he’d find out what his plans were. His last night in Kyoto. Then he’d get away.

Away from the Kizawas.

Away from his troubles.

Satori had worked for Ao Kizawa since he graduated from Tokyo University. Back then, she was a nobody city councilwoman. It’d been a good match. She had ambition, so did he. She’d run him into the ground. There were a lot of sleepless nights at the office during campaign season. Still, Satori had enjoyed the work. He’d even risen to the occasion and rose through the ranks of her office. Until, just a few years ago, she’d promoted him to her chief of staff.

His troubles with Jun Kizawa had started a few years after he’d joined Ao’s staff. Satori had been responsible for taking anniversary gifts and the like to Jun when Ao was occupied. Jun was a friendly man, good-looking and lonely. So was Satori. Things had started with a polite conversation. Escalated to a first-name basis. Then to sharing a glass of wine whenever they saw each other and finally… more.

An affair with a married man wasn’t exactly on the list of things Satori had wanted to do with his life. Then again, he’d done a lot of things he’d never wanted to.

“You okay back there Satori-san?” His chauffeur, the professional hero Floor, asked. Floor was a handsome man. He had full brown eyes and a youthful exuberance Satori hadn’t seen in a mirror for decades. That handsome young man looked at the flabby political flunky through his rearview mirror with pity.

“You’re looking pale.” Floor continued, his voice oozing sincerity.

“Fine.” Satori managed without letting envious bile slip into his voice. “Just nervous about tonight.”

“Impakt and I will be right outside.” Floor assured him without hesitation. Must be nice, to think so much of those around you. To be certain of their well-meaning intentions. The kid had probably never had to set a co-worker up to take the fall for his boss’s incompetence. Probably had never had to pay hush money to a maid that saw too much. He definitely hadn’t had an affair with his boss’s partner.

Satori remembered being like him. It irritated him.

“I’m sure you will,” Satori muttered spitefully. He wished Floor didn’t remind him of what he’d long ago lost. He wished he’d never had to meet Floor.

“We will.” The young man replied firmly, either not noticing the bitterness in Satori’s voice or not giving a damn. Heroes.

Floor turned the car right onto Imadegawa.

Satori hated heroes. Self-righteous pricks that just had to be better than everyone else. Still, they could be worse. They could be villains.

Satori shuttered. Villains. Nothing was worse than villains. Villains like the Night Parade.

Satori didn’t know exactly how he’d gotten mixed up with Midas. He knew what happened, just not how he got to that point.

Successfully concealing the affair, Satori had managed to earn Ao’s trust. He was damned good at his job. He made sure her political career plan went off without a hitch. Eventually, she’d been obliged to promote him to her chief of staff. With that promotion came a lot of power and a lot more stress.

Stress and power are a shit combination.

Embroiled in the turmoil of managing a Councillor’s office and an affair, Satori had found himself in need of other outlets. Gambling, drinking, drugs, he’d try anything just to get a moment of relief from the storm of his daily life. One day, he lost a bet. He lost big. He couldn’t pay.

There were the standard threats. They’d break his legs, kill his mom, this that, and the other thing. Satori hadn’t cared. Broken legs were passe. He hadn’t talked to his old bitch of a mother in ten years, not since he drunkenly confessed to his affair. Then… the threats stopped.

Satori had been as careful as he could. He’d only bet with small-time bookies. People who couldn’t REALLY hurt him from where he sat. It’d never occurred to Satori that Bookies sold debts.

One day, when he entered his home after staying at a hotel, he found an old man sitting at the foot of his bed. Satori could still see that man if he closed his eyes. The man was hunched with age. He wore a wide-brimmed hat and gold-rimmed glasses. His smile, that horrible toothy smile, shined in the darkness as if it would illuminate the world in golden flame.

He introduced himself as Midas. Satori knew the name. Midas explained that he had the honor of being Satori’s creditor. Tears ran down Satori’s face.

Satori could still hear the words that dripped from Midas’s crooked jaw. He heard them whenever the room was quiet. He heard them whenever he lay down to sleep.

The plan was simple. A Councillor had access to information a normal individual would never get his hands on. Satori was a Councillor’s Chief of Staff. He would get whatever information Midas wanted whenever he wanted. For this, his debt would be forgotten.

Satori hadn’t even thought to refuse. He knew what refusal would mean.

Floor pulled the sedan over to the side of the road. His phone blared an alarm.

“Is something wrong?” Satori asked on reflex.

“One moment.” Floor answered. He looked at his phone.

Satori’s current circumstances weren’t his choice either. It was nothing so dramatic as a change of heart. Nothing so noble as realizing the error of his ways.

Satori had been caught smuggling classified information in his briefcase. He’d been questioned. He’d cracked.

Everything came out, his affair, his cooperation with the Night Parade, everything. After he’d spilled his guts all over the interviewer, something unexpected had happened. He’d been offered a deal. A deal that put his life in extreme peril.

Satori wasn’t a brave man at the best of times. He’d even call himself a coward. He wouldn’t agree to spy on the most dangerous man in Kyoto unless the prize was irresistible.

The prize was a fresh start. Freedom from a lifetime of bad decisions wiling away his days as a fisherman in Okinawa. Who could say no?

“There’s an attack on a passenger train.” Floor finally reported.

“Do you need to--”

“No, they have enough heroes responding.” Floor put the car back in gear and continued their drive.

“How do you know that?” Satori asked if only to avoid going back to his own thoughts.

“If they need heroes who’re on assignment they send what’s called a Beta Code.” Floor explained as if this were common knowledge. Perhaps it was in the industry. “If they need undercover heroes, they send an Alpha Code. This alert’s a Gamma Code, it’s ‘all heroes not otherwise occupied.’”

“Is that right?” Satori replied dryly.

“Yup! There're also other codes depending on the disaster level, but… honestly, this is all public information. The only thing secret is what the Alpha code is for the day.”

“Really? What could make them use an alpha code?”

“Typhoons, Tsunamis, Earthquakes, a villain flattening city blocks. Anything that qualifies as a major disaster.”

Satori blanched. “Flattening city blocks?”

“That kindof power is pretty rare, but there’s an S-class for a reason.”

“H-have you ever seen an Alpha-Code?”

“I wouldn’t know.” Floor confessed. “Only people undercover would know the Alpha Code if they saw it, and this is the first time I’ve been undercover. We had a Beta Code not too long ago. Remember when the Night Parade caused that fire outside the city?”

“… I remember that a lot of heroes died.”

“...yeah.” Floor confirmed glumly.

The car descended into silence again. Floor in quiet contemplation of his own mortality, and Satori in… he didn’t know what. He hated heroes, the self-righteous pricks, but on a deeper level, he realized how much his security depended on them. The idea of his security being mortal was more unsettling than being reminded of their righteousness.

Desperate to take his mind off things, Satori looked out the window. Floor was just turning the car onto Ichikawa Street.

Ichikawa Street was a residential block in downtown Kyoto. Rows of white apartment buildings squatted together on either side of the road. The mountains outside the city were visible down the street between the buildings. They hung in the hazy light of day like blue teeth. A thin shadow was cast upon the street from the eastward-facing buildings. The westward buildings were half bathed in the morning’s light, where the east’s shadows ended.

A pair of restaurants hung near the middle of the street. One, on the eastern side, was a standalone upscale Ramen place, the type that cared what prefecture your noodle came from. The other, also on the east side, was little more than a dive bar masquerading as a grill, built into the first floor of one of the anonymous apartment buildings. Only the tall glass windows and signs offering skewers would tell passers-by that this was a place of business and not a home. Neither of the restaurants was open yet. They didn’t offer breakfast this late in the day. The proprietors would be asleep until it was time for them to serve dinner.

Families don't live on Ichikawa Street. The street catered to urban professionals already long at their place of work. The only thing to recommend this road for a route was that it was connected to Imadegawa and wasn’t a dead end. The winding residential street would guide them onto Marutamachi Street. Still, no one sane would take this street to go to South Central Kyoto where Satori’s office was.

Not unless they were weary of being predictable.

“What the--” Floor whispered. Satori leaned down to peer through the front window. Ichikawa was always empty this time of day. No one who lived here would dream of taking off work for anything short of being bedridden. Yet, standing there, in the middle of the road, was an extraordinarily tall woman. She eclipsed 2 meters. Her skin was onyx. She wore a pair of red sunglasses in the faint morning light. She wore a bright green tank top, a pair of beige shorts, and a smile.

“What the--” Satori repeated. Before Floor slammed on the accelerator and swerved onto the empty sidewalk. Satori was driven into his seat.

“FLOOR?!” Satori gasped.

“HANG ON!” Floor demanded. He slammed his fist on the dash, and a bright red light filled the interior. The distress signal. That woman was a villain?! Satori felt bile rise in his throat.

They rocketed up the sidewalk around the tall black woman. Satori looked out the window as they passed her. She hadn’t stopped smiling.

The car slammed into something. Satori rocketed forward. His head slammed into the back of Floor’s chair. The world went dark.

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Chapter 2

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Christopher and Ryusei sat at a ramen stall, empty bowls sat in front of them. Ryusei was enjoying a cigarette while Christopher fiddled with the sword at his side. The sword, which had for so long worn a thin chain to remind him not to draw it, was now freed. This morning Ryusei hadn’t put the chain on….

Christopher hadn’t brought it up yet, somewhat afraid Ryusei had just forgotten to put the chain on.

“Need anything else?” The one-eyed old man behind the counter asked. Ryusei had introduced him as Date Hatake, a retired pro hero from the bad old days. The wavy text above his head read:

“No,” Christopher answered.

“Another beer!” Ryusei ordered. He held out his glass mug.

Date raised an eyebrow at Ryusei. “Aren’t you on patrol?”

“Were.” Ryusei corrected. “Just finished up, didn’t we Chris?”

“‘A hero should never drink to the point of inebriation. There’s no telling when circumstances might call you to action.’”

“Don’t quote Karaburan at me!”

“How about this? You’ve had enough.”

“I’m not even buzzed!”

“I’m with the kid, you’re cut.” Date seized the mug out of Ryusei’s hands.

“Noooooooooo!” Ryusei reached for the mug feebly, only to feel an ice-cold bottle of water slid between his hands. He cradled the unlooked-for bottle in his hands for a moment before he let his head slam onto the counter. Tears formed in the corner of his eyes.

“Monsters.” Ryusei whimpered.

“Sorry about him.” Christopher apologized.

Date dismissed the apology with a wave of his hand. “He’s been worse.”

“How the Hell am I supposed to sleep if I’m not drunk?” Ryusei muttered as if the idea of sleeping sober was an impenetrable mystery.

“Sir? Ryusei said you were a hero. When were you active? If you don’t mind me asking.” Christopher asked, ignoring his teacher’s descent into the madness of sobriety.

“I was. I hung it up… oh… 40 years ago now.” Date answered.

Christopher studied the man’s quirk description again. There was a hero that came to mind with a comparable quirk, the Yume no Seirei, or just Yume. He’d been a notorious vigilante before the formalization of the pro-hero system. It was said that he was fearless, to the point of self-harm. A mere touch from the Yume made his opponents lose their will to fight.

But he’d died in battle with the villain Fall Down.

“What’d you go by?”

“Yume.” Date answered without hesitation.

Christopher’s brow furrowed.

“Oh!” Date exclaimed. “You’ve heard of me? That’s a surprise.”

“He knows everyone,” Ryusei whined. “Pisses you off.”

“I thought you died.” Christopher breathed with an appalling, even by his standards, tactlessness.

“Chris…” Ryusei warned, suddenly sober.

Date didn’t take offense. “Yeah, I read that in the paper after I got out of the ICU.” Date smiled. “Since I decided to retire after rehab neither I nor the Hero Association ever saw fit to correct the record. Spared me from getting back on the bastard’s radar anyway.”

Christopher frowned thoughtfully. The ‘bastard’ was the villain Fall Down. Anyone who so much as saw him had an almost irresistible desire to kneel. Standing in his presence was described as twisting your nuts off. There were only three individuals known to have resisted Fall Down’s quirk. One of them was standing behind a ramen counter. The second was a blind heroine named Sonar who had supposedly died in the same battle as Yume. The third… Christopher didn’t want to give the third the credit, but he was the one to finally put a bullet in Fall Down’s skull.

Wanting to move on from the thought of Desolator doing the world a favor, Christopher impulsively asked the question. “Why’d you quit?”

“Chris!”

“Nah, it’s okay.” Date waved Ryusei’s outrage aside with a genial smile. “After rehab my quirk didn’t work.”

“Really?” Christopher felt his voice pitch as his interest was suddenly ignited. “Why? What happened?”

Ryusei held his head in his hands embarrassed.

Date merely grinned broadly, happy to be the center of attention again. Christopher got the impression the man had missed this feeling of being idolized. If so, that only deepened Christopher’s interest. What could drive a man who enjoyed being the center of attention into retirement?

“I took an arrow to the knee.”

“…you were injured?” Christopher whispered, not comprehending.

“I got hitched!” Date laughed.

Both Christopher and Ryusei tilted their heads in confusion. Even Ryusei hadn’t heard that explanation.

“…you were injured?” Christopher ventured again.

“He means married.” Ryusei corrected.

“Oh!” Christopher blinked. He looked back at Date’s quirk text.

“My quirk lets me pass my own negativity onto others. Unfortunately for my career, I met someone in rehab and then…”

Christopher put two and two together. “You stopped being depressed…”

“Err, no.” Date corrected. “I didn’t suddenly find happiness the moment I saw her. I still had shit to get through and plenty of bad days, but… I wanted to get through it because of her.”

Date smiled fondly as he fiddled with his ring. “Nowadays, I have to have a really bad day before I can so much as make a man frown.”

“Do you regret it?” Christopher blurted.

“Regret what?”

“Not being able to use your quirk. Not being…”

“Do I regret being happy?”

“… sounds like a stupid question when you put it like that,” Christopher admitted.

Ryusei laughed.

Date didn’t. He looked at his ring thoughtfully. “… when I hear about a villain hurting people, a villain I could’ve bent over my knee back in the day. Yeah. I regret that I can’t do anything about it anymore. But every other day? But, when I wake up in the morning? Wouldn’t trade it.”

Christopher frowned thoughtfully. He fiddled with his necklace. He could feel Hitomi stir. He couldn’t understand Hitomi’s feelings on hearing Date’s story. He didn’t understand his own. If he could stop using his quirk if he could be sure he’d never use it again, that he’d never forget a friend again… would he? Could he? Did he have the right to be… relieved of that fear?

“You good?”

Would it really matter if he did stop? He hadn’t really made a difference since he started playing hero. What little good he’d done had been due to other people. Every time he tried to act on his own, he just got in the way. He’d wanted to be a hero to prove using his quirk was worth its drawback, but had it been so far? Didn’t holding onto Inigo’s quirk prove it wasn’t?

“I—”

Ryusei’s phone blared with a violent alarm. Christopher almost sighed in relief as his mentor retrieved his phone.

“What is it?” Date asked, leaning forward.

“Sounds like a train just got caught in a dome of darkness,” Ryusei reported. His brow furrowed.

“Nox.” Christopher asserted without hesitation. Ryusei nodded in grim agreement.

“Annnnd, it’s an all hands. Well, we gotta get going.” Ryusei put his phone in his pocket and began to stand. Date straightened as if to follow, then… he remembered what he was now. He settled back behind the counter.

Ryusei smiled sadly at Date. “Put the meal on the tab would you? I’ll settle up with you after we--”

“Wait!”

Ryusei looked at his ward in confusion. Date’s suddenly tired eyes followed Ryusei’s. Hitomi tightened against Christopher’s neck. She was excited. Christopher’s mind raced.

“What’s covered?”

“A train outside of town.”

“Was there a political event or something?”

Ryusei checked his phone. “Not according to the report.”

“This is a distraction!”

“… huh?”

“This is SOP for the Five!” Christopher ranted. A thousand reports raced through his head. “Whenever they do a public assassination, they send a member to manufacture a major disruption. The point of the disruption is to draw in as many heroes as possible then they hit their target while everyone’s distracted!”

“You’re sure?”

“There are variations,” Christopher confessed. “Sometimes Mercury will rob a bank in broad daylight, Maddox will pick a fight with a top hero, or Tether will lock a plane to a runway. But, the Five don’t bother civilians for no reason, I swear this is a distraction.”

“So,” Date interrupted. “You’re saying another call’s going to come in?”

Christopher nodded frantically. His hand gripped his necklace. He looked at Ryusei who looked torn between taking his intern’s advice and following the app.

“I promise,” Christopher said. “If we give it five minutes, there’ll be another call that no one else can respond to.”

Ryusei shook his head. “Even if it’s a false alarm, the scale of her darkness... we could lose a lot of people--”

“The Five have never killed a civilian in one of these distractions.” Christopher insisted. He wasn’t sure he believed that himself, but there had never been a reported fatality during one of their ‘feints.’ “But they’ve always killed people in the real attack.”

---

Ryusei was torn. He didn’t buy that the victims of this feint were safe. He shouldn’t buy that. But… an all-hands call? There’d be plenty of heroes there already. Heroes that were better suited to taking out Nox than he was. Heroes who didn’t have the benefit of having a Five-obsessed nerd on staff.

Ryusei looked at Date. Date’s single eye twinkled. This was nostalgic for the old man. The tension, the gut-wrenching anxiety when deciding between following your gut or the urgent request on the phone. There was nothing like it. Ryusei didn’t like it. To him, complex decisions were just bothersome, but that didn’t change the fact that so long as he thought to call himself a hero, he had to make them.

Ryusei looked at Christopher. He’d known the kid for a few months now. The kid knew his villains, but he knew the Five in particular. If Ryusei was going to trust anyone’s information… he’d have to trust the kid’s.

“Alright.” Ryusei decided. “Your call, do we wait here or start moving?”

Christopher shook his head. “There’s no telling where they’ll hit; moving might put us further away from their attack. I say we wait here.”

“Alright, Date do you mind if we wait here?”

Date smiled broadly and motioned towards the bench. “Please. While you’re stuck here we can settle your tab?”

Ryusei’s heart dropped.

Ryusei swallowed bile as he faced the prospect of having to close his tab. “Uh…” he tried to remember the contents of his wallet. He could only envision a moth that might have made its home there. “… can you wait until after I get paid for the bank thing?”

“They STILL haven’t paid you for that?” Date asked incredulously.

“Probably trying to figure out how much of the prisoners’ medical bills they can deduct from my payout.”

“Yeah, sounds like them. You good on rent?”

“Yeah, I made that thanks to Chris and I busting a low-level drug dealer last week--”

---

Christopher wasn’t listening. He was a bundle of anxiety. He’d felt so confident that another call would come when the heroes were good and out of position, but now that consequences were on his head? His confidence waned.

There was a faint possibility this wasn’t a feint. A possibility that hadn’t occurred to him until Ryusei’d already decided to stay here. The Five might have been paid to kill/ maim as many heroes as possible. This could be like the trap they laid in Brussels 8 years ago back before Ogre died.

Bicorn had taken a bank hostage and started making outrageous demands. Heroes responded.

The Five struck.

Heroes died.

The Five hadn’t done anything that indiscriminate since. Christopher had thought Ogre’s death at the hands of the Maiden two weeks later (and the Maiden’s immediate acquittal) had convinced Desolator that those jobs weren’t worth doing. It was a rational assumption, given that the Five had never done anything like that since but, faced with the possibility of being wrong, Christopher’s mind abandoned rationality.

Christopher had to resist telling Ryusei he thought he might be wrong three times as the minutes dragged on. Rationally, he knew he was right; he was just terrified of being wrong. He was terrified that people Ryusei might save would pay the price for his hubris.

Hitomi nestled against Christopher’s throat, let out a soft whine only he could hear.

Christopher’s hand wrapped around her necklace form. He started to calm down a little bit. He was right. He knew he was right. If there was one thing he knew, it was the Five. He just needed to breathe for a second, to let things progress, and then--

A frantic alarm exploded from Ryusei’s phone. Christopher sprang from his chair while Ryusei was still reading the address.

“Downtown!” Ryusei reported. Hitomi leaped from Christopher’s throat and became a flying carpet. Christopher dove on top of her. By the time Ryusei had joined him, she was already off the ground and headed for the battle.

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Chapter 3

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Maddox watched as the sedan swerved around her. She resisted the urge to wave as she saw her target, Satori, meet her eyes through his window. He was terrified. He should be. She touched a hand to her ear. “Tether.”

As the last syllable left Maddox’s lips the sedan slammed into an invisible barrier with a teeth-shattering crunch. The sedan caved around a singular point as its occupants were thrown violently against their restraints. Floor’s head hit an airbag. Satori’s restraint failed to lock. He hit the seat in front of him with a bone-crunching force.

Maddox idly wondered if the crash had done their job for them.

Shards of metal fell at the feet of a Vietnamese man grinning maliciously. He held one hand forward, two fingers spread apart. One finger pointed to the street, the other at the car. He was Tether, a junior partner of the Five.

“Disappointing.” Tether declared as he nakedly approached the driver’s side door. “I was hoping for a challenge.”

“Floor’s not the target,” Maddox warned.

“Just making sure he’s not an obstacle~.”

Maddox sighed. She approached Satori’s door. “Just make it qui--”

The driver’s door flew open! Floor rolled to his feet in front of Satori’s door. Tether dashed forward with abandon. Maddox stopped.

Floor held up a hand, “5-Meter Standin--”

Tether leapt!

Floor cut his chant short as he swayed away from Tether’s flying kick. Tether hadn’t even hit the ground before he sent another kick aimed directly at Floor’s head. Floor ducked, then unleashed an uppercut for Tether’s jaw. Tether fell away from the blow. He hit the ground hands first and exploded into a kangaroo kick into Floor’s stomach. Floor rolled with the blow! So it went for a few moments as Maddox passively observed the carnage.

Maddox frowned. Tether was the better fighter, but Floor was his physical superior. As a result, neither were able to gain an advantage. She quickly grew bored.

“Want help?” Maddox asked lackadaisically.

“DON’T YOU DARE!” Tether answered, ducking under Floor’s roundhouse kick.

“K.” Maddox shrugged. She made for Satori’s door.

---

Floor cast a desperate glance towards Satori. A glance that cost him as Tether finally drew first blood! A roundhouse kick to Floor’s jaw sent the man reeling. Tether dashed forward, ready to seal his victory.

Floor held up a hand in desperation. “5-Meter--”

Tether leapt!

Floor’s eyes lit up!

Too late, Tether realized his mistake.

Spinning, Floor unleashed a roundhouse kick at his hanging opponent.

Tether couldn’t dodge. He’d fallen into his enemy’s trap. He could only try to block.

A wrecking ball exploded against Tether’s arms. He felt bones crack as he was rocketed through the air. He slammed into the asphalt shoulder first. He slid another meter before he gained control of his momentum and rolled to his feet.

“10-meter standing room!” Floor’s voice sealed Tether’s defeat. Still rolling, Tether’s heels stuck to the asphalt like they’d been spot-welded. His momentum carried him ass-backward, colliding with asphalt, feet still stuck to the street.

“Dammit.” Tether hissed. He’d lost. AGAIN. He sat up defiantly. He saw Floor, blood dripping from his nose, grinning triumphantly. Maddox looked between Floor and Tether, clearly impressed.

Through the blood and missing front tooth, Floor grinned. “You’re under arrest.” He declared.

Tether sighed.

---

Maddox clapped softly. The sound sent a shiver down Floor’s spine. He looked back at the villainess, thoroughly confused. He’d won! … Hadn’t he? Her attitude made him doubt reality.

Maddox shook her head. “I’m not being sarcastic. That was good work. Seeing a counter once and immediately baiting someone into using it? You’ve got good instincts.”

“…” Floor looked at Maddox like she’d grown a second head. She was talking like she was his teacher, not his prisoner.

“If you ever want a well-paying gig, give us a call. But on that note--” Maddox lifted her leg. Asphalt cracked like dry clay beneath her foot as she pulled free. Floor hissed a curse and charged!

Maddox reached for her sunglasses.

Floor threw a haymaker.

Maddox took off her sunglasses.

A fist collided with a Titan’s jaw.

The ground shuttered as everything Floor had collided with a steel wall. Maddox looked at Floor, his fist still buried in her jaw, with a raised eyebrow. A shiver ran up Floor’s spine. “You done?”

Floor leapt away in a cold sweat. His heart pounded. Only Ernst had ever eaten one of his punches like that. Maddox tilted her head. She watched him for several moments.

“Guess so.” She concluded. She walked towards the car.

For an awful moment, Floor’s feet were stuck to the ground. He’d thrown everything into that punch and she’d eaten it like a bowl of cheerios. His quirk was useless against someone who could tear up the road. What could he do? Hope that Hifumi would respond to his distress signal and get Ernst here before it was too late? Was that all he was good for?

Floor was afraid, but as he froze he heard a voice screaming in his ear.

At those remembered words, Junpe--Floor charged!

Maddox’s attention was absorbed by the passenger side door. She didn’t notice Floor gather himself together. She didn’t see him charge. Maybe she wouldn’t care if she did. Floor would change that.

Floor leaped into the air and dropkicked the giantess. With the force of a car wreck, Floor collided with Maddox. Muscles popped, and tiny bones cracked. Maddox’s foot left the ground.

---

Maddox blinked in surprise as she stumbled one, two, three steps away from Floor’s titanic blow. Her arm… hurt! She rubbed her injured appendage as she glanced in shock at the man lying on the ground. He seemed as surprised as she was that that had actually worked.

For a moment, the two stared at each other. One was shocked that she’d badly underestimated an opponent. The other was even more shocked at how badly he’d underestimated himself.

A car horn honked in the distance. The spell broken, Floor kipped up and entered a ready stance.

Maddox sighed. She’d hoped the kid would stay out of the way after she’d no sold that haymaker. She didn’t want to deal with someone that knew how to fight. She looked past Floor.

“Tether? You good to fight?”

“ALWAYS!”

Floor didn’t take his eyes off Maddox. He knew Tether wouldn’t be able to break out of his quirk.

Maddox let her other quirk flare. She felt her eyes burn as she peeled away layers of Floor’s quirk.

Floor’s eyes widened as he felt his quirk slip away. He barely had time to turn before Tether was on him.

Tether grabbed Floor’s belt from behind and, with a heave, tossed him over his hip. Floor hit the ground well and rolled to his feet before Tether could get on top of him.

Maddox, satisfied that Tether would be an adequate distraction, walked towards the disabled sedan. The two behind her were still locked in stalemate when Maddox reached the door.

“No!” Floor shouted. Only to be cut off by a swift kick to the jaw.

“Hey!” A familiar voice cut in over the comms. It was Mercury. “I’m like 30 seconds out. Sorry, there’re a lot of bright spots, but I finally got across Imedegawa. I should be good from here.”

“It looks like they’ll be done soon,” Desolator advised. “Maddox, you mind doing the honors? The windshield seems to be bulletproof.”

Maddox raised an eyebrow as she spied the spiderweb pattern of a bullet impact on the car’s windshield. She hadn’t even heard the shot. Where had the Boss set up? Outside of town? She reached for the door.

“I missed the job?!” Mercury whined.

‘Sucks to suck.’ Maddox thought wryly.

Satori was still there, unconscious. Blood pooled from his mouth and nose, but he still drew breath evenly. A concussion? Whatever, he wouldn’t have to worry about that much longer. A red light blinked beneath the dashboard.

‘A distress signal? Floor must’ve turned in on before he rolled out. Not that it’d done him much good,’

“Okay, maybe not. Mercury double time!”

‘What--?!’ Maddox’s thought was lost beneath the teeth-chattering sound of a screaming engine. She looked up just in time to feel a red sportscar driven by a man dressed as a crash test dummy slammed into her.

---

Chapter 4

---

Moments Earlier
Impakt weaved around traffic. He honked his horn furiously. He swerved around a rickshaw popping onto the sidewalk before he made it back to the road. The screen on his car’s center console displayed GPS directions towards a red flashing light. The light that said his sidekick, his friend, Floor was in distress.

Minutes ago, Impakt, Challenger, and Sunlight Man had been on their way to a Gamma call north of Kyoto. He’d made the decision after consulting with Floor via text.

Floor was close to Satori’s office building, only five minutes away. There’d been no signs the Night Parade knew of Satori’s change of heart. And the event north of Kyoto, a train suddenly shrouded in darkness, looked like it could turn into a full-scale disaster at any moment. It was a judgment call, weighing the potential endangerment of his sidekick against the definitive danger of the people aboard that train.

Impakt felt he made the right choice. He was just glad Hifumi had been slow to get dressed this morning. When Floor had hit his panic button, they had barely left base.

“Turn Right.” The Navigator informed him. Impakt yanked on his handbrake and drifted into a tight right turn onto Imedagawa. A truck next to him had to slam on his brakes to avoid a collision. Impakt stopped himself from apologizing for the inconvenience.

Impakt chanced a glance in his rearview mirror.

In the backseat, Impakt’s two interns sat in anxious silence. Challenger gripped his katana with white knuckles. Bobby wore the uneasy grin of someone who couldn’t quite work out the math of whether he’d live through a car wreck at 120km/h.

Impakt looked back at the road just in time to see traffic at a standstill some 20 meters in front of him. Impakt didn’t have the time to hit the brakes. Impakt hit the turn signal.

“Young Heroes, always remember to signal when you switch lanes.” Impakt lectured as he merged into oncoming traffic, weaving his car dexterously between a pair of trucks.

“… don’t drive into oncoming traffic unless it’s necessary,” Impakt added as an afterthought.

The two interns nodded.

“Also, 120km/h in the middle of a city isn’t safe unless you’re a professional quality driver. Be sure to only drive at a speed you’re confident in.” Impakt concluded.

“Sir?” Challenger ventured. He was uncharacteristically demure, Impakt thought as he slid around a city bus.

“What is it?” Impakt asked gently as he drifted through another turn.

“We’re probably close enough I could get Bobby there.” Challenger managed. His voice sounded a little weak, like he was carsick. Poor lad. Impakt drove his car onto the curb to bypass idling traffic.

“I’m game.” Bobby nodded. He was taking Impakt’s driving a little better than Hifumi, and no wonder! The boy had lived in Texas! Kraftwork once told Ernst that the only creatures he feared were Dallas drivers.

“No,” Impakt answered as he finally hit clear road and slammed his accelerator to the floor.

“Sir, we can--”

“We don’t know Floor’s situation. I’m not about to drop Sunlight Man into that unsupported.”

“But, sir, Floor is--”

“A professional hero,” Impakt answered confidently. He hoped he hid his own anxiety. “You have to trust your comrade to hold the line until you can reinforce them effectively. Going in half-cocked is how heroes die.”

Those words hung over Sunlight Man and Challenger for a moment. Impakt silently cursed himself. He hadn’t intended for his anxiety to leak through with such a morbid condemnation.

“I know your hearts are in the right place.” Impakt mollified. “But it’s better to come to his aid in force than to trickle in one at a time and risk another of our own joining our comrade in his distress.”

Challenger and Sunlight Man seemed to accept that. Excellent. Impakt was a little worried he was losing words in translation again. He was glad he got the point across well enough that they didn’t keep pushing.

Impakt glanced at his GPS again. They were close. Very close. They’d be there in approximately ten seconds.

“Challenger, if I give you the word, can you teleport yourself and Sunlight Man out of the car?”

“I’ll maintain momentum,” Challenger advised. “But Bobby can probably handle that.”

“I got you, bro.” Sunlight Man agreed.

“What’re you gonna do?” Challenger asked, leaning forward in his seat.

“Don’t worry about it,” Impakt answered. He didn’t know what he’d be driving into, but the car had hero insurance...

As that thought crossed his mind, his navigator chirped a helpful “turn left!”

Yanking on the handbrake, Impakt glided his car onto Ichikawa Street. He saw a battlefield.

Floor was locked in mortal combat with a dark-skinned man. The two seemed evenly matched. The black sedan Floor had been driving this morning was wrecked on the side of the street. A giant woman loomed over the sedan; its backdoor hung limply from her hand. Impakt’s eyes widened.

There were only a few villains that had been compared to Kraftwerk. The Mad Ox, Maddox, was a brutish villainess renowned for being among the strongest creatures on the planet. A creature that competed with Kraftwerk for the title of strongest. A creature that could probably survive a car hitting her at 120km/h.

Impakt slammed his foot on the accelerator. “Challenger now!”

Without hesitation, Hifumi grabbed Bobby and blinked out of the car. Impakt’s eyes widened manically as he raced towards the oblivious giantess. Still smiling, he unbuckled his seatbelt.

“Remember young heroes,” Impakt said to no one in particular. Maddox held a hand to her ear and then looked up the road towards the car that’d soon be her skirt. Too late.

“Never unbuckle your seatbelt until your car has come to a complete stop.” Impakt crouched in his seat. His car slammed into Maddox. He leaped with the impact, throwing himself over his steering wheel, through his windshield, into the reeling Maddox’s chest.

---

Tether ducked under Floor’s kick by a hair’s breadth. He was grinning ear to ear. THIS IS WHAT HE WANTED! This is what he trained for! To fight on equal terms with a HERO. To be centimeters between triumph and death! To--

VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

… was that a car?

Seized by the same inexplicable fascination that grips one when they witness a train wreck, Floor and Tether both found their eyes wandering up the street to witness a red sports car flying down the street at ludicrous speeds.

Before Tether’s eyes, two boys appeared ten meters behind the car as it sped down the street. One was a lithe young man dressed in a red suit, the other a burly teen dressed in a blue and gold costume. The burly teen curled around the red shinobi and absorbed the impact as they hit the street.

The car, seemingly ignorant of the spectacle behind it, shot towards Maddox. Tether didn’t have the voice to give a warning before the car slammed into Maddox’s legs, rocketing her forward and into the blue and yellow figure of Impakt that came through the windshield. Impakt hit Maddox in the chest with the force of a tank shell and threw her 20 meters back.

---

The driverless car veered off the street and crashed into the ramen restaurant with a cacophonous crash. The restaurants floor to ceiling windows did little to arrest the car as it flew into the restaurant like it’d forgotten its order. As the last pane of glass fell, Maddox slammed into the ground.

When Maddox hit the ground, the spell over Floor and Tether had been broken. Floor charged for Tether again. He launched into the air and aimed a flying kick for Tether’s chest.

Tether ran.

Stunned, Floor hit the ground and began a pursuit. He was certain Tether was one of those ‘fight to the death’ types. He would’ve never fathomed the man would flee.

---

‘DAMMIT!’ Tether mentally cursed. He’d begun to hope Impakt wouldn’t show. He’d hoped he’d be able to just sit back and enjoy the fight! But no! The universe had conspired against his pleasure. Now… now he had to stick to a fucking plan that involved him running away from Floor!

---

Maddox rocketed backward as a missile slammed into her chest. She gasped. The air was driven from her lungs. She hit the ground. Rough asphalt tore at her clothes. Driven by instinct, she rolled. As she came to her feet, a foot connected with her jaw. It sent her head over heels.

Riding the momentum of the kick, she came to her feet again. Her vision swam. A blue and yellow silhouette charged her. A fist slammed against her jaw. It hurt more than the kick. She covered her head. A fist slammed against her side.

Maddox kept her guard over her head.

A foot rocketed into her oblique.

Maddox kept her guard.

A jab slammed into her chin.

Maddox’s vision cleared. She could make out the hero in front of her now. The blue-yellow jumpsuit and red safety goggles were a dead giveaway. He was Impakt. He drew a fist back. She remembered the plan.

An attack name came to Impakt’s lips unbidden.

“KRAFT—”

Maddox stepped forward.

“—SMASH!” Impakt unleashed a vicious straight for Maddox’s jaw. He missed.

Side-stepping the blow, Maddox grabbed Impakt’s arm. She stepped between his legs, slammed her hip into his pelvis, and tossed him into the air.

“TETHER!” Maddox yelled. She could only hope it’d been 5 minutes since he’d stopped the car. She could only pray that Tether had remembered the plan and gained distance from Floor when Impakt had arrived on the scene.

It had. He had.

One moment Impakt hurtled through the air, ready to eat the kinetic energy of hitting the ground and resume his battle with Maddox. The next, he stopped dead. He dangled in midair, neither falling nor rising. He was tethered.

Maddox breathed a sigh of relief, “Good work Teth--” a golden fist hit her jaw. The world went white.

---

“Hah!”

Tether shouted in triumph as he saw Impakt suspended midair. His hand was held in front of him. His pointer finger pointed at Impakt. His middle finger pointed at the ground. For the next five minutes, Impakt was effectively out of the fight.

Floor looked on in horror as his boss hung over the street like a marionette.

The blue and gold intern slammed himself into the unprepared Maddox. Maddox reeled, and the boy pummeled. That wasn’t worthy of the barest concern to Tether. As if some student could do more than inconvenience The Mad Ox. He might even wake her up.

Tether turned towards the still-stunned Floor. The fool hadn’t questioned why he’d suddenly gained distance when Impakt arrived. Though he loathed to admit it, Floor was stronger. A single mistake would be the end of their battle. Floor had misunderstood Tether’s strategic retreat as an acknowledgment of that fact. He thought he’d put Tether to flight. It never entered his head that Tether could be pursuing a strategy to take the biggest threat off the board. Typical. Heroes couldn’t understand the thrill of dancing between life and death.

Tether assumed his ready stance. He grinned maliciously at Floor. “You’ve lost.”

---

Floor didn’t answer. ‘Five Minutes.’ He thought. It’d been five minutes since Tether’d pulled that trick with the car. If he could do it at will, he would’ve tied him to the street and killed Satori immediately. Like him, Tether must have a cooldown time. Floor had a cooldown time of his own, it made him good at counting minutes passively.

It’d been 3 minutes since he’d used 10-meter standing room. He still had 7 minutes left on cooldown. 2 minutes before that, Tether had stopped the car with his quirk.

Floor glanced at the sedan. Hifumi was in the car, tending to Satori, hopefully focusing on his quirk and taking Satori to a Hospital, but that wasn’t what Floor was focused on. Floor’s eyes drifted towards the front, where the frame was no longer taut against an invisible string.

After five minutes, the tether would expire, Impakt would be free, and Bobby could be relieved. But Tether would be able to use his quirk again. That was fine. He just needed to beat Tether unconscious before those five minutes were up.

Unable to take any more delay! Tether charged!

---

Chapter 5

---

The Mountains outside of Kyoto are pockmarked with abandoned shrines and temples. These abandoned places of worship didn’t have the renown necessary to attract tourists. One of these shrines, The Shrine of the Saintly Nekomata (聖猫又神社), had long fallen into disrepair.

Located 3 kilometers outside of Kyoto, the temple’s main claim to fame had been that Tokugawa Hidetada had commissioned its construction during his tenure as Shogun, supposedly to honor the eponymous saintly nekomata that sheltered him during a blizzard. That modest claim to fame hadn’t been enough to keep it going nearly 700 years later. Once beautiful crimson Torii stood covered with crawling ivy. The main house leaned on its foundation. The donation box stood empty, save for a single 10000 yen bill donated by the man laying prone at the edge of the shrine, looking through the scope of a .50 caliber rifle.

Desolator watched the proceedings through his scope passively. Floor and Tether were locked in a stalemate. Sunlight Man was launching himself into Maddox with abandon. Impakt called down advice but was effectively out of the fight. Challenger was putting Satori in a neckbrace, probably getting ready to teleport him away.

Desolator touched the comm on his collar. “Mercury, how far out are you?”

“…”

No answer. It’d been 25 seconds since he last checked in. He might be underground right now. Desolator sighed and focused through his scope. His lens passed over Challenger, away from Sunlight Man and Maddox’s battle, it settled on the battle between Floor and Tether.

As Desolator watched, Floor pushed Tether away with a roundhouse kick to the chest. He couldn’t have asked for a better shot. He squeezed the trigger.

---

Bobby launched a right hook into Maddox’s jaw with a dramatic holler. The behemoth stumbled back, dazed.

“DON’T GIVE HER A CHANCE TO RECOVER!” Impakt called down. His eyes were locked on the battle from his tethered position.

Bobby grinned wide as he wound up for another hook. He didn’t need anyone to tell him that!

Moments earlier, after he’d used his body to shield Hifumi from the ground. After Hifumi had teleported back to his starting position. He’d faced a choice. He could either help Floor with a villain he’d never heard of before. Or, he could rush forward and help Impakt take out Maddox.

Maddox, who’d been compared to Kraftwerk. Maddox, who’d once, when she was a young mercenary, fought Sun Man and got away. His quirk didn’t let him even consider helping Floor, even if, deep down, he knew it’d have been the right move.

Bobby’s hook landed. Maddox stumbled. Another hook, another, another! Without really meaning to, Bobby had launched himself into a Dempsy Roll, slamming his fists against Maddox’s chin in wide arcing shots. The ground trembled beneath the abuse he was laying on her jaw.

Maddox couldn’t even raise her hands as Bobby’s assault continued. Then, after one hook landed with particular force, her eyes went dead. Bobby’s eyes widened. He trembled in triumph! SHE WAS OUT! Bobby cocked an arm back.

“NOVA…”

Impakt’s eyes widened. That windup had given Maddox room.

“Bobby STOP!”

Bobby didn’t listen.

“IMPACT!” Bobby finished. He fired a full body overhand straight for Maddox’s nose!

It met air.

Bobby blinked numbly as the momentum from his overhand pushed him forward. He didn’t see Maddox! Where had she gone?!

His answer came when a meteor slammed into the underside of his chin. Bobby’s vision trembled. His teeth cracked. Windows shattered. His feet left the ground. His eyes rolled to his right.

Maddox was there, finishing the uppercut that turned the fight around. Her eyes were anything but dead.

Bobby landed on his feet, but his legs were jelly. Being counter punched wasn’t new to Bobby. Back when he fought in the underground he got countered plenty of times. His legs gave out. But he’d never been countered by someone so damn strong. His knees hit the ground. It was like running head first into a train. His vision blurred.

Maddox cocked her right arm back.

---

Challenger carefully slid the neckbrace over Satori’s throat. The man blinked blearily. “Where--”

“Don’t talk.” Challenger advised, as he finished securing the neckbrace and unbuckled the victim. He felt thunder strike only feet away as Bobby went after Maddox.

Hifumi couldn’t afford to look at the spectacle behind him. His eyes were fixed on the victim. He wasn’t in the rescue course, but even he knew pupils shouldn’t be different sizes. Satori had a concussion. He might even have a brain bleed. He needed to get the man to a hospital quickly and the fastest way to do that was with his quirk.

“How much do you weigh?” Challenger asked.

“What?”

“Please answer.”

The man tried to shake his head at the absurd question but hissed as his abused muscles tried to move.

“Satori-san, it’s important that you answer. Are you 85 kg?”

“87,” Satori answered carefully. The rising crescendo of the battle outside snaked its way into his consciousness.

“Height?”

“177cm.” He answered quickly.

“Okay, thank you.”

Challenger grabbed Satori’s shoulder. He tried to visualize Kyoto General, where so many of his friends had ended up during the year. He felt his quirk struggling with the unfamiliar load of a stranger.

Satori’s eyes were wild as he finally noticed the fight going just meters away.

“What are you waiting for?!” He panicked.

“Just wait,” Challenger whispered calmly. “I’ve got you.” His mind began to clear. He could feel the image of Satori begin to take shape. Just a few moments more and--

Satori looked at Challenger, words of outrage forming on his lips. Instead, his eyes grew wide. He unleashed an ear-splitting shriek.

Challenger was briefly confused before he saw a wooden handle materialize before his eyes as if it’d passed through his skull. In the corner of his eye, Hifumi saw a sledgehammer’s head rocketing straight for Satori’s head.

Hifumi didn’t think. Challenger acted. He closed his eyes. He could only hope that his shaky image of Satori was enough to get him a few feet away.

It was.

Hifumi and Satori fell into darkness as the scream of glass and metal being torn asunder filled the air. Hifumi opened his eyes again. They were back in the car. A sledgehammer crashed through what remained of the car’s roof for Satori’s head. Hifumi grabbed his charge and rolled out of the car. The sledgehammer demolished an empty seat.

Standing on the trunk of the car, looking at Challenger with a bemused smirk. Even Hifumi recognized this man. He was a white man with auburn hair wearing a cheap tie and cheaper slacks. Blood stains pocked his pressed white shirt. He wore a smirk not even a mother could find endearing.

This was Mercury, the newest member of the Five.

“Smooth move kid.” Mercury complimented. Satori whimpered.

Challenger got to his feet. He reached down to drag Satori with him when a thunder strike nearly shattered his eardrums. Windows shattered. Miles away, dogs barked. Hifumi’s eyes wandered to Bobby.

He saw Bobby hit his knees. He saw Maddox draw her fist back. He didn’t think.

Closing his eyes, Challenger teleported next to Bobby. Snapping his hand forward like a snake, he grabbed Bobby’s collar. When he opened his eyes again, they were both standing over Satori.

Maddox’s haymaker met air. Mercury held his sledgehammer across his shoulders in naked admiration. Tether screamed in outrage.

“I HAD HIM!” Tether turned angrily towards the mountains.

‘What?’ Hifumi wondered weakly.

Hifumi looked over. He saw Floor on his knees, clutching his stomach. Blood poured from a fresh wound. He knew what it was, a bullet wound. He hadn’t heard a gunshot.

“Floor-senpai…” Hifumi whispered. Floor shook his head at Hifumi. “Focus on Satori.” He commanded, blood dripping between his teeth.

Challenger tried to obey, but Floor wasn’t the only one hurt.

“Shit.” Bobby hissed as he got to his feet. He was unsteady. His knees nearly touched. He barely kept himself standing.

“Bro, are you--”

“Fine!” Bobby lied. “She barely grazed me!”

“That’s a damn lie,” Maddox smiled, rubbing her jaw. “but you got me pretty good kid. Props for that.”

Bobby, despite himself, almost smiled. That smile faded when Floor, weakened by the massive blood loss, hit the ground face first.

That tore a howl of rage from Impakt. “When I get down from here--”

“In 2 and a half minutes.” Maddox interrupted.

“By then, your sidekick will be dead,” Mercury nodded to Floor. “and your interns will have followed.” He nodded to Bobby and Hifumi. “Unless they get the fuck out of the way and let us handle Satori-san.”

Challenger glanced at Satori behind him. The middle-aged man was curled in the fetal position, crying. Hifumi hadn’t even realized he’d stepped between Satori and the Five. Nor had he seen Bobby do the same.

Their training had driven them forward. Their brotherhood caused them to advance together without a word shared between them. They looked at each other. Hifumi saw it in Bobby’s eyes. He wasn’t even thinking of giving up. Hifumi only hoped his eyes told the same story.

They did.

Both of the young heroes answered at the same time.

“Not a chance.”

<“Eat a dick.”>

Maddox rolled her eyes. “Tether.”

Hifumi and Bobby readied themselves only to hear Floor screaming. Before their eyes, Tether was stomping on Floor’s exit wound. Floor’s eyes screwed shut. His fists clenched so hard he drew blood, and his teeth cracked as he tried to hold the pain in. Despite his efforts, cries of agony leaked out of his throat.

Impakt struggled against his bonds.

“I’ll be honest.” Mercury taunted. “The only reason the Boss hasn’t put a bullet through Satori’s head is because the wind’s picked up. He doesn’t want to hit you two. As soon as that dies down.” Mercury pointed a finger gun at Satori. “BANG.”

Tether twisted his foot. Floor barely managed to hold in his screams.

“The only thing stepping aside will do is spare your ‘senpai’ some pai--” a shadow fell over Hifumi and Bobby. Mercury’s eyes went from arrogant superiority to undisguised terror. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!”

Following Mercury’s panicked eyes, Hifumi looked behind him. He saw a 3-meter-tall black Oni head. Its meter-wide eyes were yellow swirls of endless madness. Before the two heroes could react, the Oni’s mouth split open. A serpentine tongue wrapped around a screaming Satori.

Before the shock subsided, the mouth had closed around Satori. A massive gulp echoed through the street.

The street was silent as heroes and villains tried to digest what they just witnessed. An oni, a thing of nightmares and ancient lore, had just appeared in broad daylight and eaten somebody without so much as a hello. The villains were trying to figure out if this was a mission accomplished. The heroes were trying to understand how such a bizarre occurrence could take a life out from under them. The first to get over his shock, sitting 3 kilometers away, was Desolator.

A .50 caliber bullet slammed into the Oni’s forehead. The head shattered like glass. Revealing that Satori was nowhere to be seen. Though no one had time to dwell on that. Every shard of the Oni’s head took shape as it hit the ground. Some shards became dragonflies, some became bats, and a few became dragons. They were familiar dragons, just black instead of green, they flew for Floor!

‘Gigan?!’ The thought hadn’t fully formed in Hifumi’s head before smoke billowed down the street, covering the heroes in a protective canopy, and the angry swarm of glass shapes streamed around the heroes to attack the Five.

Tether was quickly covered in little bats, and blood flowed wherever their wings of sharpened glass met skin. He struck with abandon. Whenever his fist met a bat, it shattered, but there were too many, and he was quickly overwhelmed.

Mercury struck around at random. Scores of glass shapes fell to his hammer. Scores more passed through his body harmlessly.

Maddox didn’t get any bats. She got dragonflies. Dragonflies dove for her uncovered eyes. Between her fingernails. Some even tried to worm their way through her clenched teeth.

Several shards of tiny black dragons worked together to pull Floor away from the bedlam. One of the shards formed a makeshift bandage over Floor’s stomach, staunching his bleeding.

Without pausing to appreciate the absurdity of the sight, Bobby and Hifumi took Floor from the dragons. The tiny dragons saluted upon being relieved of their burden then turned and rejoined their fellows in their struggle against the Five.

“This way!” a familiar voice yelled. It came from the end of the road, around the corner. They both recognized the voice.

“Chris?!” Hifumi laughed. Bobby joined him as they carried their bleeding senpai towards safety. A plume of smoke hovered over them as they made their escape.

---

“ENOUGH!” Maddox shouted. She slammed her hands on her cheeks. The shards on her face fell away as the impact of a 7.0 earthquake shook her body. Given a momentary reprieve, she spread her arms apart. “EARS!”

Mercury covered his ears. Tether tried to do the same.

Maddox brought her hands together in a cacophonous clap. The shards shattered as the shockwave slammed into them. The chaotic battlefield turned deathly quiet as the few remaining shards fled the field.

Maddox, crying tears of blood took stock of the situation. Tether was in bad shape. He was leaning against a wall, and one eye was closed, maybe missing. Mercury looked fine. He probably phased the entire time, but without being able to see what was happening around him…. He went over to help Tether stand.

Floor was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Satori nor were the interns. Only Impakt was still there, dangling from the sky, grinning in triumph. He’d seen what happened. He’d known the heroes had won.

“Fuck.” Maddox whispered. She brought a hand to her ear. “Des, you have eyes?”

“They went around the corner under smoke cover… which is unfortunately open East-West.”

Mercury’s face fell, and he couldn’t phase through well-lit surfaces, making this North-South facing street a perfect environment for him in the early morning or late evening hours. If the fight moved to somewhere the sun had free reign. He’d be useless.

Maddox sighed. With Floor gone, they had no leverage to force the kids back. They couldn’t hurt Impakt without Nox. Mercury was no good in a well-lit street. And Tether looked like he needed a trip to the Vet.

“Plan B then?” Maddox asked.

“Agreed, get out of there before the heroes resolve Nox’s distraction.”

Maddox looked up at Impakt. He was still grinning. “Impakt.”

“Was?”

“Tell the kids they did good.”

Impakt’s face turned to stone, but Maddox knew he’d pass on her message, whether he’d say it was from her didn’t matter. It was the truth. With that, the Five retreated.