The footage was from a phone camera, as was so often the case when it came to these types of videos. The surprising part was that it was on a window washer’s platform, perched on one of the upper tiers of skyscraper, which had a view of a wide swathe of Lux City below.

  The other man on the platform, a burly and grey-haired guy in orange coveralls, glanced up from his tools and glared at the cameraman. “Riley, what the hell are you doing?” he asked gruffly.

  I watched as the cameraman raised a gloved hand into frame, pointing at a blip in the distance. “Check it out,” he said, his voice a shade younger than the other man.

  I could see the blip rapidly drawing closer, though the camera quality wasn’t great. Then, seconds later it had crossed several blocks, coming to a jerking halt in the air in front of another looming building across from the platform.

  “Shit,” the cameraman huffed, gripping the railing with one hand, leaning over to see below them. He zoomed in, and I could make out Impact’s form hovering in the air. A shimmering, vibrating aura orbited around her, distorting the pixels of the camera.

  She could fly, that wasn’t surprising, but the speed was impressive. Worryingly so.

  “Oh shit,” the other window washer said, peering over the edge and watching as something else raced her way.

  Titanium’s power armour gleamed in the sunlight, sleek plates shifting easily as he wove through the air. Trails of fire flew from the soles of his boots, and similar jets of propulsion blazed from openings on his shoulder blades.

  “Alright little lady,” he called out, the amber light of his lenses glowing against the silver of his smooth faceplate. “That’s far enough. Do us both a favour and turn yourself in.”

  “Get fucked!” Impact shouted. The window washers recoiled and I barely glimpsed the air rippling around her with renewed intensity. A great gust of distorted air was launched from Impact, smashing into Titanium and pushing him back through the air. His thrusters flared, fighting against the gale.

  Riley zoomed in, getting a better look as one of his pauldrons opened to reveal a row of small guns. A salvo of gunfire echoed through the air, dozens of bullets flying forth. Yet they halted in the air, suspended in Impact’s barrier. The edge of her barrier glowed red and suddenly the bullets were launched back twice as fast.

  “Whoa!” Titanium cried, raising his arms to block as several bullets pinged off his plating. He righted himself quickly and lunged at her, dodging past ripples in the air that tried to grab at him, and collided with Impact’s barrier. The blow sent her tumbling a few meter through the air, coming to a halt on the facade of the skyscraper. Titanium pressed the assault, his lenses glowing brighter and firing twin beams of energy that instantly lanced toward her.

  The beams struck her barrier, breaking into smaller strands which warped and bent around the sphere. The force behind them pushed Impact further and further back, her arms raised and straining to keep up the field.

  I paused the video, staring at that frame for several moments.

  “She can launch projectiles back no problem, but can’t push energy attacks back,” I mused. Well, Foresight could be of use there. Cheshire’s smoke too, potentially, or the lightning that Dynamo could summon. Stretch and I weren’t as lucky.

  Still, I could feel the beginning of an invention taking shape in the back of my head. I clicked play again.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Come on kid,” Titanium said, his voice muffled by the persistent hum of his lasers. “It’s not like I want to hurt y-”

  A great shock wave tore from Impact’s body, slamming into Titanium and rocking the platform. Riley clung tight with his free hand, cursing and hollering.

  Several windows shattered behind her, dozens and dozens of shards orbiting around her like a flock of murderous birds. The shards rocketed forward as a hail of bullets, each one exploding against his armoured hull with enough force to stagger him. One, however, went wide and I only barely glimpsed it as it sliced one of the window washer’s ropes in twain.

  Both men shouted, cursed, struggled to grab the railings for support.

  “Shit!” Titanium shouted off-camera. “Hang on, I’ve got you-”

  The video came to a sudden halt, the last frame showing the phone falling from Riley’s grasp. Titanium was reaching for the platform while Impact was rocketing off in a different direction through the air.

  I sat in silence for some time, digesting what I had just seen.

  She was strong, but also versatile with powers that worked well at offence and defence. Titanium hadn’t been trying to kill her, sure, but I’d seen enough footage of the man to know he could tear through buildings like wet paper if he wanted to. Being able to knock him around was no easy feat.

  A knock at the door roused me to attention, and I quickly changed my tab to something more innocuous. “Come in,” I said curtly.

  Gail poked her head through the doorway, offering me a small smile. “Am I interrupting?” she asked.

  “Not particularly,” I replied. She was, but I saw no point in being coarse with her. She’d always been decent to me, though I still felt some dread at the thought of her wanting a ‘motherly’ conversation with me. Hadn’t had anything like that since I was five. “What’s up?”

  “Just checking in. Touching base,” she said as she made her way in. “I’ve just noticed you’ve spent a lot more time outside the home these days. You’ve been making new friends?”

  “I guess,” I replied.

  Gail took a seat on the bed and gave Lassie a lazy pat on the head. Gail, to her credit, had taken me being an Apex in stride and did not act too concerned about my tinkering. So long as she didn’t know about my day job, things would probably stay that way. Then again, unlike Todd, my powers weren’t exactly flashy at a glance.

  “What’re they like?” Gail asked, her tone neutral. I watched her warily all the same.

  “Just some kids I met,” I replied, choosing my words carefully. “We had some similar interests, got to talking, so now I occasionally hang out with them after school.” I was trying to keep Gail placated, stay on her good side. If she got wary and I had to start sneaking around, it would be a pain.

  “Gosh. All this time you’ve been staying with us, I think this is the first time I’ve heard of you having friends. It’s nice, though. I’m happy for you,” she said, offering me a smile.

  “Okay,” I replied, giving her a flat look. It was all I could think to say.

  “Think you might want to invite them over some day? I promise I won’t embarrass you,” she said.

  “Uh...” For a moment I thought about what that would look like. Cassie’s cavalier nature, Sam’s perpetual gloominess, Beatrix’s weirdness... Greg’s weed stink. I wrinkled my nose a bit. “I’ll think about it.” For my own good, I would not.

  “Anyway. My pumpkin pie is ready. Up for a slice?”

  The mention of food perked me up just a bit. It didn’t hurt that Gail actually knew what she was doing as a baker. A little snack, I supposed, would help clear my head and plan for what was to come. “Yeah, I guess.” I hopped up, closing my browser as I went, and followed her downstairs.

  I stole a glance to the living room TV in passing. Todd, as ever, was fixated on the news. And when saw the headline I had to stop too.

  ‘Vanguard Clashes with Death Row in New Mexico.’

  The footage was taken from on high, either from a drone or helicopter. They were fighting in some vast stretch of desert, pockmarked with craters and scorch marks. Dauntless was at the head of the pack, facing Firing Squad on one side and Guillotine on the other. His gleaming white costume shone in the twilight, undamaged by the hails of gunfire launched by Firing Squad’s monstrous gun-sprouting arms.

  Azure Warlock was elsewhere on the battlefield, erecting walls of light to ward off clouds of chlorine and nerve gas being launched by Gas Chamber’s amorphous form. Vitruvian Man hovered above his caped ally, his metal limbs morphing into long tubes that blasted clouds of a neutralizing agent.

  I couldn’t see anyone else on the footage, but I didn’t doubt the other members of Death Row were there. They always travelled as a pack. The ‘Roaming Genocide’ as some folks called them. It had been months since they last popped up... Those guys were the dark side of the Society. Their pack of mutant pitbulls.

  “Whoa there kiddo,” Brian said, scooping up the remote. “Those guys are a little too hardcore for you to watch.” He flicked the channel over just as Dauntless burst through a colossal tornado of fire summoned by Stake.

  “Aw man,” Todd muttered, scratching his scaly grey chin.

  For once, I actually agreed with Brian.