After changing all of my bandages, I struggle back into the armor. Everything is a lot snugger with the extra layer of fabric covering most of my body, but if I have to choose between my armor chafing more or, you know, being vulnerable, I know what I’ll pick.

  With the armored bits all fastened, I slip back on the pants and belt, making sure everything is fitted before putting on the boots.

  I hide a wince as I throw on the jacket and gloves before looking at the helmet with a smile.

  No matter how many times I see the thing, I smile like a child looking at my helmet. It’s a real-life superhero costume; it even now has a few marks where the paint has chipped from the fight with Kurt.

  “Alright, let’s do this.” I say as soon as the helmet is on. My voice doesn’t sound like me anymore. It sounds way more confident than I have ever felt, but that’s okay; heroes need to be confident.

  Less than twelve hours ago I fought with Kurt, so he’s not going to be out, and I’m sure they need to get more captives.

  They shouldn’t expect me to continue the full-court press that I’ve been doing, which is sort of the point of me running myself to the point of exhaustion.

  I’ll stop and take in several of their cronies, let myself rest and then get right back at it dismantling the operation.

  Fully ready, I unfurl my mind map, pushing it out the full distance. Nobody is sneaking up on me this time.

  All physical and mental preparations that I could make accomplished, with a running start I leap out of the tower aiming for a standard hangout for homeless people according to trends.

  They probably sent the car out early this morning and are waiting until around now to pick someone up.

  I pause as I catch my breath, making sure not to rest my hands on any of the pigeon spikes.

  What if they’ve already picked someone up and they’re already on the way back? If I were them, that would most likely be what I would do.

  Trusting my gut, I spin around and begin free running my way back to their lab entrance. If I just ambush whoever is trying to pull into the lab, that should be the best of both worlds. It might even convince some more people to respond and come out, and then I could capture the whole lot and finish this tonight.

  And if the fight is going poorly, I can always take that dose of enhancement and level the playing field or explode it in my favor.

  Could just be me, but that plan feels pretty good, so I only make a few minor tweaks to it internally as I make my way.

  If I can take out this whole branch in one fell swoop, that’s going to give my words a lot more weight as another prospective hero at least that’s the hope.

  Perched on a nearby building, I focus my vision, waiting for a car to show up and use their hidden hatch.

  I still don’t know how to use that thing either on the inside or the outside, but finding it makes it easy enough for me to spy on it.

  Maybe they use one of those garage door clickers and if I can take out the mook that’s holding that one nobody else will be able to get in to ask for help and they’ll have to rely on the people inside realizing that something is wrong.

  As one of their usual vans turns the corner, I kick myself into action, falling from the building and crashing to the ground just before the van.

  “Sup.”

  That was stupid.

  Welp, I’ve said that already. “Would you all like to get out of the car and surrender?” I ask gently, holding up my hands in a hopefully peaceful way.

  Them readying stun batons in the car isn’t exactly the peaceful response I was hoping for. But they have a kid in the back, which means I really need to not lose.

  Not waiting for them to get out of the car, I dart forward, passing through the front of the car before solidifying my fists and beginning to get to work on beating my way through the group of four.

  Unfortunately, I’m not that fast, as the two in the back escaped before I even reached them, and I only got one strike on passenger seat guy before he and the driver had escaped. Stepping out of the car, I turn to face them, holding my hands up.

  I take a breath to steady myself before darting forward to attack.

  I’ve never fought four people at once before. I’ve fought a duo if that counts, but that worked like two one on ones so I haven’t a clue how fighting a group works.

  Not wanting to get accidentally electrocuted, I slam my foot into one of the goons' hands, knocking the stun baton away before phasing to avoid the two batons going through me.

  The feeling of energy passing through me is still, dare I say, electrifying, but it doesn’t hurt, which is the most important part.

  Glad to confirm that just because my foot was solid doesn’t mean that all the electricity will go straight to my foot, but I’m going to try and get my solid bits not bonked.

  Surging forward, I go fully solid, grabbing one crook and throwing him to the ground, hopefully keeping another one of those batons out of my life for at least a moment.

  I slide through the ground, flipping up to give one kidnapper a face to foot greeting as I reorient myself through the air.

  With another breath, I fold my mind map tighter. None of these folks seem to have any powers, so there shouldn’t be anything extra that I need to focus on, so increasing the amount of detail in a shorter distance around me seems ideal.

  “Fuck you.” One of them rasps, stumbling up and away from me as he pulls something out of his pocket.

  A triangle-shaped patch.

  I race forward trying to stop him, but it’s too late. Before I’ve fully closed the distance, he slapped it down on his wrist, and I can feel it sending something into his body.

  Crap.

  When I’m finally in striking distance, I go with a simple punch to the head, hoping that I can knock him out in one go.

  The juiced-up crony spins faster than I expected, slamming his elbow into my temple and sending me spinning towards the ground, static filling my mind as the pain lances through me.

  I curse my idiocy as I roll away, getting to my feet in a lurch. With that enhancement patch, he’s moving about as fast as I can, maybe faster.

  Thank you, Travis, for always being faster than me.

  I’m less pleased with the realization that the other three have taken the time to buff themselves up as well, meaning I’m now facing four super normals, some of them still armed with their shock sticks.

  Maybe next time my mysterious benefactor reaches out to me, he can put some weapons in my suit or at least some cool tech.

  Dodging a baton, I slam an uppercut into one of their stomachs, taking great satisfaction in the rush of air that leaves the man’s lungs.

  Phasing my torso and head, I rush forward, grabbing the wrists of two of the bad guys. With a roar, I lift them off the ground and throw them into the nearby wall.

  They might be just as strong as me right now, but I’m the only one here who is used to moving around with this much strength in every moment, and I’m going to capitalize on that skill.

  The less exciting part is that all the ones I’ve downed so far are already getting back up, the healing and durability properties really making a case for themselves.

  I move in to engage the fourth one quickly.

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  If, and it’s a big if, I can take him out as well and leave all four on the ground, I can take their captive and run.

  Darting forward, I go for the one that I think I’ve hit the most, hoping I can take him down quickly before the others go.

  My fist slams into his jaw as his stun baton lands on my side, arcs of energy lancing through my physical body, making me spasm in pain.

  I phase as I collapse to the ground, managing to have a hand go solid to catch myself.

  Hanging through the floor, I take a few moments to catch my breath. With the dark, I think they’ll have a harder time figuring out where my hand is. I should really see how much my senses improve from enhancement because I have no clue.

  My normal senses aren’t used that much.

  Energy recuperated, I pull myself up and yank hard on someone’s leg, forcing them to the ground and be my delightful cover as I get back onto the surface.

  I back up towards the wall so that I can’t have any of them attack me from behind.

  “Is that all you got?” I taunt, making a come and get me motion.

  Goon one charges forward, fist cocked back for a wild haymaker destined to slam into my head if I let him act with no consequences.

  I pass through the wall behind me, letting him strike the brick with a full-powered punch.

  “You missed?” I point out stepping out in a new spot a few feet over, so all of them have to turn towards me.

  A hiss fills the air as the pneumatic pistons fire as the garage door opens behind me.

  Cold lances through me, and I feel myself slowing down as a lone figure walks up the ramp, their appearance some kind of strange mix between a femme fatale spy outfit and winter gear. I’m going to take a stab in the dark and call her a super with thematically appropriate ice powers.

  I could be crazy, but that’s just what my senses are telling me.

  “Who are you?” I ask, turning to face my opponent, the eyes of my helmet meeting the visor of their motorcycle helmet.

  Is this the first person I’m facing who’s actually using something to cover her face? I guess the crab and lightning guy fit; their powers covered their faces somewhat, but this is the first time I’m meeting a kindred spirit in some sense.

  She doesn’t respond as she stalks forward, a crystalline spear of ice beginning to manifest in her left hand.

  I really don’t want to get stabbed with it.

  I have no idea how powers work, but could she freeze me in a specific way that could make it so that I couldn’t phase?

  That actually doesn’t seem that realistic, so I’ll not worry about that.

  With miss tall, cold and silent not wanting to talk and immediately wanting to throw down with me, who am I to keep her waiting?

  I slam my foot into the guy I was fighting, sending him reeling, and pick my way to the cryokinetic.

  I’ve never fought someone with a weapon before, only people in hand to hand or people with superpowers like Kurt while I try to get into hand to hand range.

  Her using her ice powers to make a weapon and flash freeze the area around her to slow it all down.

  If movies have taught me anything, then I think I should try and get within her functional range so she can’t use that fancy spear to skewer me?

  Racing forward, I phase my upper body as the spear runs through me as I slam an elbow into her helmet.

  Unlike most people I’ve hit in the face, she remains standing, and I can practically hear the cold in her gaze as she stares at me through that visor.

  While her breathing is labored, it doesn’t seem like she’s tired or anything.

  “Horrorfrost!” one goon screams at the person spearing me.

  Either in response to her name being said or the fact that I tried to elbow her, she moves, ice lancing up from the spear as she drives it up towards my skull.

  My upper body entirely phased as I move to knee her in the stomach.

  As I fall from the ice slick that tripped me, I realize that she’s at least smarter than I was in that moment.

  I’m stupid.

  I go solid and roll away from her, narrowly avoiding a barrage of ice spikes.

  The four regular criminals rush behind her and limp their way inside and out of my clutches, letting her handle me.

  Horrorfrost raises her hands before her spear of ice explodes in a wave of energy. Reverse energy? Maybe? Not sure.

  When the light clears, a layer of frost has coated everything, including the two of us. The ice on me seems to try to restrain me, but the ice on her is slowly shaping itself ?into gauntlets of ice that look wicked sharp, able to cut through nearly anything.

  We brawl for a moment, and I’ll be the first to admit that she’s definitely better than me. A lot better than me.

  The only option I’m going to try at this point is to win by cheating. But it’s not cheating to use superpowers in a fistfight; she’s using her ice claws, and I’m constantly flicking my power on and off to get some of the ice off of me.

  My fist passes through her raised hand before I turn my hand solid once again, my fist poised to strike her right in the motorcycle helmet visor.

  As my hand connects, my hand explodes in pain as cold lances through me, very nearly flash freezing my hand and making it nearly impossible for me to flex my fingers.

  Ripping my arm back to me, I retreat, cradling my arm to my chest as I wait for it to start to warm up at all, but unfortunately, my right arm does not seem all that keen on recovering anytime soon.

  I got caught with my pants down against Kurt, but this is the first time there’s going to be real lasting consequences to a fight. How long is getting my arm almost frozen off going to take to recover?

  Especially with me not being able to go to a doctor for it.

  I dance backwards trying to make as much distance as possible for me.

  Horrorfrost lunges at me, her claws outstretched, all of it aimed at my face.

  A wave of nostalgia passes over me as I slip to the side, catching her hands and holding them away from me.

  The nostalgia ends because it's not Amelia trying to steal my snacks out of my hands as we watch a movie. It's a supervillain trying to gouge my eyes out.

  Horrorfrost lets out a growl that sets my teeth on edge.

  I try to disengage myself quickly, but I find my hands frozen to her gauntlets, and I lose precious time phasing my hands and scrambling away.

  A wave of cold energy slams into my mask, taking my vision away, and I can feel the ice beginning to creep into the inside.

  Cursing internally, I dart away, nearly tripping over a stun baton.

  Acting quickly, I pick it up and continue darting away, trying to get out of her range of powers. The ice is still climbing into my mask.

  The helmet definitely needs to come off, but I can't be near here where they might have cameras.

  “Media appropriate reference that will make you chase me!” I yelp at her before darting around a corner to regroup.

  Thankfully, the stun baton is painfully simple to use. I hit people with ?one end, and I hit the button that makes it all sparky.

  I just need to distract this lady and knock her out so I can take the kidnapped person out and run.

  With a thought, I phase my head, letting the mask fall to the ground, finally letting myself breathe clearly, and boy does it feel good to be able to breathe without ice trying to go down my throat.

  I hold the baton in my left hand, thumb on the trigger, ready to strike her the moment she rounds the corner. If I’m lucky, it’ll take her out in one blow.

  As she rounds the corner, I strafe to the side, expecting a blow that never came.

  Horrorfrost seems to freeze upon seeing me.

  Not one to ignore the opportunity gifted to me, I slam the baton into her side, pressing the button as electricity arcs through her body, hopefully rendering her unconscious or at least less likely to move around.

  “Ja—” she says, her mouth clamping shut with an audible click halfway through her statement.

  Without thinking, my fist slams into her visor, breaking glass and sending her careening into the ground. Do I want to know why a supervillain knows my name? I don’t know, but I think it’s a punch first, ask questions later situation.

  One hand currently inoperable, and me wanting to take the hostage with me, I drop the stun baton and scramble to the car, throwing open the back door and picking up the one captive like a sack of potatoes.

  At this point, I realize I need to have my mask on and run over to wrestle myself back into the helmet before beginning to make my escape.

  “It’s going to be okay.” I assure the captive, trying not to jostle him as I run through the streets.

  “Mmmfhp!” they say, which makes sense; they are ?kind of at the moment bound and gagged, which, now that I think about it, must be terrifying.

  This person just got kidnapped, heard a bunch of sounds correlating to people fighting, and then that led to them being kidnapped again by a stranger in a mask that looks like it went a few rounds with a snowman to questionable results.

  Slowing down, I pull to a stop, setting them down against a nearby wall and going to undo their bindings.

  I’m beginning to get feeling back in my right hand, which is really nice, so I can move it around slightly.

  Not that I’m relying on my hand dexterity to untie the bindings. Especially when all it takes is a slight touch to the binding and I can will them phased and just pull them off without issue.

  “I’m going to get you home.” I assure them as I pull off the final binding.

  “Thank you.” The person snobs and now that I can see them clearly, they’re definitely a kid. Not as young as Bianca, thankfully, but their biggest worry in life should be whatever upcoming math exam they have, not getting kidnapped to experiment if they have superpowers or not.

  “Do you know the way home?” I ask about picking them back up, though this time I don’t just toss them over the shoulder. The kid needs to be able to see me if they’re going to guide me to their home.

  I also make a note to myself that I’m going to start carrying tissues and candy in my pockets if I’m going to make a regular habit of being a hero and helping kids.

  They’ll probably feel a lot better about all of this if they either have candy they’re eating or can at least have their faces clean.

  “All you need to do is point me in the right direction, I promise.” I assure the kid as I begin a brisk jog in the direction that the van had been coming from before our grand battle.

  With the child guiding me, I continue the pace, though I stretch the mind map as far as it will go so that, just in case anyone is following us.

  Though at the rate we are going, it doesn’t seem like I’m going to have to worry about that. While there have been a few normal vehicles that thankfully haven’t tried to do something like call the police on me.

  “Do you want me to bring you up to your door, or do you want me to drop you off before that?” I ask quietly as he indicates to me that this house is his.

  “Door?” he asks quietly, clinging to my jacket.

  “Of course, what else would I do? I’m going to make sure you’re home safe.” I promise.

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