Whatever skill Jason had that let him bound along rooftops without a problem was one Cass certainly didn't have. So she's resorted to cheating at this point.

  Cass couldn't fly with her powers, not really, but she could float along without too much problem. Couple that with shifting her form around, and it was pretty easy to land in the spots she wanted to as she did her best impression.

  Her “clones” tended to do significantly better at the moving around like Jason thing, but turned out constructs powered by nothing beyond her own will do significantly better at moving around how she wanted.

  If she didn’t have to remain sort of close to them, she could handle an entire city to herself, though she had neither the range nor the ash to cover that much distance.

  As one clone stopped a mugging, Cass’s main body checked her phone again nervously, seeing if there’s any reports. Logically, it’s easy to remember that Asher was going to let them know if something ?was wrong with Jason and Amelia long before any signs would show up on social media. But what logic dictated and what she felt were different things. "How are they doing?"

  “They’re fine. Fractal just finished freezing one of their supers while Mask is scouting the place.” Asher responded almost instantly. “Harder time than you guys, sure, but it’s not like we expected much at the ass crack of dawn.”

  “I don’t enjoy patrolling at this time either, but at least I’m getting breakfast out of it.” Travis complained.

  “I’m usually up around this time.” Cass admitted as she firmed up one clone so that a punch wouldn’t disperse it.

  “And I think that sounds absolutely crazy.” Asher complained. “But it’ll be alright; we can all have naps after this. Hang on, Fractal’s asking me something, so I’m switching lines.”

  Cass took a brief moment to wonder how Asher was able to follow multiple conversations at once and participate. She’s not even fully human, and she had nothing like that ability.

  She shook her head, refocusing on patrol.

  A patrol of the city, which was a lot harder than Cass ever thought it could be from what she’s seen everyone do.

  How was she supposed to stay aware of everything as she was walking around the city? Jason at least had the ability to expand his senses so he could sort of just stay still and canvas the area.

  While Cass was distracted with the idea of what exactly could be impolite to do while trying to be a superhero, she didn’t miss the rapid slamming of feet against the ground that slowed to a stop as they approached her.

  Cass, working under the assumption that it was time for some kind of conversation, moved over to the top of a sitting on the ledge so that they could talk a bit easier.

  “I thought your suit looked different?” Travis said, looking up at the armored form of Cass. That looked identical to Jason’s armor.

  “It does, but I don’t want tonight to be my debut. Tonight’s about making sure the city is going to feel safe, and I figured that having their usual guardians would look significantly better. And I can’t freeze anything, so Jason was the choice to mimic.” Cass explained the armor dissolving to reveal her masked face.

  “Can you mimic both of his abilities?” Travis asked, tapping his foot against the floor in preparation to get running again.

  “Somewhat,” Cass admitted. “But really he just kind of punches people, which is easy to mimic.”

  Travis nodded before putting a hand to his ear. “I've got a report for something I want to check out, so gotta run.”

  The speedster dashed off quickly, accelerating to a blur, while Cass wondered if every speedster had to make abysmal puns like that.

  On a whim, Cass began moving toward one of the safe houses that Containment said some of their guards would be at ready to respond. On the off chance that there’s something about to happen, it would be a good place for the villains to consolidate their power.

  The building seemed entirely empty, though Cass had limited ability to detect anything. Maybe they were just being stealthy but it still set her teeth on edge.

  A palm raised, ash spilled out of the armored glove before flowing down towards the seemingly abandoned building.

  As the ash got farther away Cass’s form shrunk. Hopefully, they don’t get so paranoid about what’s going on that someone’s going to feel the need to blast a handful of ash.

  Right as the tendril slipped from under the door, the communicator crackled to life, almost causing her to fall off the building.

  “Smoulder Cannonball!” Asher called, his voice sounding strangled.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Is something happening to them? Do you need me to head over?” Cass asked as ash billowed out as she ran toward the lab.

  Travis didn’t respond, but that’s unfortunately not surprising. If he’s running around, he might not even hear them.

  “No, they’re fine. Mostly. Mask is probably stuck in a trap of a fight but Fractal is getting him out.” Asher said breathlessly. “The problem is that they knew about us somehow.”

  “What do you mean?” Travis asked, voice razor sharp.

  “Unless there’s some other reason a bunch of people are suddenly pouring out of the streets at the exact same time people are trying to escape from the lab, I’m going to guess that they’re more forewarned.” Asher explained, causing Cass’s heart to sink.

  “I have to check something.” Cass said, expanding into a golem of ash before crashing down into the building where there should be civilians or someone in there.

  At this point, unsurprisingly, there’s nobody in there, though I suppose that’s better than there being some kind of trap.

  “Cannonball?” Cass asked, hoping that he’s actually available to answer.

  “What is it?” Travis asked, wind rushing through the air.

  “Check the other safe houses to see if any of the Containment men are actually here.” She said, fear creeping into her voice. “I have to check on Bianca," she said, taking off.

  The wind spiked up through Travis’s mic before fading to nothing when it realized he’s running and a rippling wave of mass Cass flows towards where Bianca is staying.

  It quickly became apparent that she was safe, and just a moment later, Travis’s voice echoed through her ear, informing her that most of them are actually there, stationed like they thought.

  Only a few have seemed to be compromised.

  “This probably means the people up top aren’t bought off or corrupt, but at least some of the lower-ranked members probably made it so that there were gaps.” Asher explained. “Smoulder, I need you to head over to the south side and deal with the fight there. Cannon, I want you running patrol and being my ears, fighting whoever need be as you go.”

  Cass began making her way to the desired location, moving as a rippling wave of matter. At this moment, speed was key, meaning that she couldn't keep pretending to be Jason and expect herself to preform.

  The sound of gunshots was all Cass needed as a compass to know where she needed to go.

  “Miracle, how are Fractal and Mask doing?” She asked, cresting a hill, to see a trio of people seeming content to just destroy everything near them.

  “Fractal’s trying to choose between helping Mask, escorting captives out, trying to stop scientists from running away.” Asher explained, his voice strained. “Mask is trying to kill someone.”

  “He’s what?”

  “The dude probably deserves it.” Asher grumbled. “And he won’t kill him, you know that.”

  “Focus, you two. If they needed our help, Miracle would already send us over. Just give me the address for the next group you need me to fight?” Travis said, refocusing the group towards their respective tasks.

  Cass firmed up her body, making sure her form was nearly a one to one of Jason’s armored form before dropping down in front of the trio.

  The illusion that it’s Jason, the city’s slightly known caped menace, was broken instantly when Cass’s voice piped up asking them to surrender.

  The trio of idiots, confident in their ability to take down the woman cosplaying as a different rookie super quickly discovered that fighting someone who’s more or less sentient ash wasn't easy. Especially when she split up into three bodies so that everyone could have a one-on-one.

  Not that Cass was winning either; it’s just a stalemate. None of them seem to have powers, but Cass doesn’t want to test that by hitting harder.

  What options did she have to take someone out without hurting them? It’s not like blasting them with ash would help, or burning them?

  The trio of villains continued wailing on her ineffectually until Cass got hit hard enough that her face deformed as the fist scattered ash.

  Cass took the hit and with it realized that there’s no way she can win while trying to fight like Jason.

  The clones of ash exploded into a wave before wrapping around the criminals, restraining them in a single motion.

  “Are you going to surrender, or am I going to have to do something more to stop you?” She asked, letting her hair glow with heat.

  She would never trigger her ability to try to burn any of them, but it’s not like they need to know that. Every weapon in her arsenal should be used to protect people, right?

  The fear of getting their bones melted was pretty good at convincing the criminals to stand down.

  “Miracle I’ve gotten these three detained, I can send some of me off to the next fight if you need?” She asked, turning one head to the side in an attempt to hear? any other fights.

  “How much of you do you need to keep?”

  “I can send half of myself out.”

  “I could use some help detaining these folks?” Travis interjected.

  Cass sent out a vaguely shaped humanoid mass of ash in the general direction of Travis as her attention split two ways. “If you round them up to me, I can hold them till someone gets here to take them back.”

  It’s not glamorous to play the role of prison warden, restraining people as they come in and we wait for someone to transport them, but it’s the job only she can do.

  A few minutes later, a cruiser showed up, and Cass quickly handed off the three detained criminals to the man before flowing off in the direction Travis had been fighting in.

  This time, however, she didn’t bother to take on Jason’s form again since if she’s already given up on fighting like him, there’s no reason to continue looking like him.

  Smoulder could protect people in her own way.

  “Why is it that when criminals are upset, they always resort to lighting stuff on fire?” Travis complained as she arrived at the site of the current fire in question.

  “You take care of them. I have this,” Cass said, flowing into the building and beginning to systematically smother the flames out while searching for anyone she needed to rescue.

  Thankfully, this building was almost entirely devoid of things in it, let alone people, though regardless, it made both heroes breathe easier that there wasn’t anyone they stumbled across while exploring the space.

  “Hey Cannon Smoulder?” Amelia asked, her voice a shock to the system after all; they weren’t supposed to be connected. “Would you two be a dear and try to slow down the horde of asshats going through the sewers trying to escape?”

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