Brainpunch - CHAPTER NINETEEN: The Storm (Patreon)

Humans are less durable than we’d like to think. A bullet, a fall, an accident, a power—it only takes one wrong move for our hearts to give out, or our brains, or something equally important.

We’re all so goddamn fragile in the end.

- Leaked recording of Iron Legion debriefing the newest additions to the Los Angeles Guardians roughly 1 month after a battle against an A-rank Kinetic resulted in 871 civilian casualties

#

This was building up to be the climax, Vivian thought. The raids so far had been hectic, yes, but the level of intensity that gripped EHC headquarters was on another level.

Maybe it was seeing the other superheroes that settled it for her. She’d been working with Lycoris’ squad only so far, with Sunrise as the only outsider, but now, HQ was buzzing with heroes.

She didn’t recognize all their names, but she could guess at a few of them. Most importantly, she recognized the leader that Ayaka had referred to as her boss.

Tsunami was a middle-aged Japanese guy with a visor and a costume themed around the classic wave paintings that Vivian had a few too many T-shirts of. She wanted to ask him what was going on, but he was already in the midst of no less than three separate conversations, so she held off on bugging him.

Thankfully, changing into her costume was a quick procedure. Vivian felt a bit exposed without anything covering her eyes.

“Don’t worry,” Lycoris told her, adjusting her visor. “If you get hit in the face by any direct blast, you’re probably more fucked with a faceplate than without.”

“Great,” Vivian muttered. “That helps a lot.”

“Alright, people,” Tsunami said. He had the slightest trace of an Asian accent, but he had a better control over the language than Vivian’s parents did. “The Guardians are en route, as are the SRU. This is not an isolated incident.

“The Gravekeepers have mobilized. Guardian intelligence just informed us that there are at least six separate instances of groups of Killjoy’s temporary superhumans at various points across Chicago. If you don’t know your assignments, talk to me. Casualties are already approaching a hundred. Command is sending the Guardians you’ll be working with to you. Leave as soon as possible.”

And that was that. Even if he didn’t have a grand speech to give, Vivian could see why Tsunami had become Echelon’s leader. He had a presence that made her want to listen to him—and it wasn’t a Washer power, she was pretty sure.

She made a face. The fact that she had to worry about that was definitely one of the least pleasant parts of her new life.

“Do we know where we’re going?” she asked Lycoris.

“We do,” Lycoris replied. “You’re a temp here, so you don’t have to come.”

“I’m coming,” Vivian said immediately.

Her thoughts caught up to her words after they’d already come out of her mouth. She was still recovering from the bullet wound in her gut, and she wasn’t particularly strong. Given the chance to leave… why wasn’t she taking it?

Because, she thought, This is my fault.

Vivian knew there was good reason to be concerned about resorting to lethal violence as her first resort, yet she couldn’t help but think that this could have been resolved so much sooner.

If only she’d been willing to kill Killjoy back at the bank, this could already be over. Ephialtes and Killjoy had both been there, but she’d been unwilling to kill a second person so soon, especially with Lachlan around.

Two well-placed telekinetic punches would have done the trick. But she had let her fear and her morals overwhelm her, and now there were hundreds dead because she’d been a fucking coward.

“I’m coming,” she repeated, firmer.

“Of course,” Lycoris said. “Let’s do our best not to get shot again, yeah?”

Vivian snorted. “Yeah, yeah. Where are we going?”

“We’re doing a repeat trip,” Lycoris replied. “They’ve taken over the airport.”

#

Once again, they took the Synth-made self-driving vans. The mood, which had been so pleasantly lighthearted before, had already soured.

“Smart of them to hit the airport if they’re making a play for the city,” Shockwave said. “Given the other locations, I think that it’s a safe assumption that that’s what they’re doing.”

And the running commentary wasn’t helping.

Vivian levitated a handful of ball bearings above closed fists. It was pointless, but keeping her power took the edge off the buzzing anxiety hovering over her.

A sharp beep startled her, and she jumped in her seat, nearly losing control of her power.

“That’s our ringtone,” Lycoris said, tapping her ear. “Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do.”

The call connected before Vivian could figure out how to accept it.

“This is Lachlan, SRU and Guardian intelligence liaison. I believe we’ve spoken.”

Despite herself, Vivian grinned. He must have had enough time to recover from overusing his power,, or maybe he’d acclimated. Lachlan didn’t sound like he was having any trouble now, at least.

“We read you, Lachlan,” Amazon said. “Status?”

“Via Esper and drone intelligence, I confirm at least twenty hostiles on site,” Lachlan replied immediately. “Five of them are supers, including Whiteout. You will be joined by Guardians Sunrise, Safezone, and Venus.”

Was Vivian mistaken, or was there a note of apology in his voice?

There better be. She tried and failed to stop herself from physically cringing at the list of names. Of the potential supers to match her with, two of those three were the last people she wanted on her team for entirely different reasons.

“I recognize Sunrise and Venus,” Vivian said. “What does Safezone do?”

“B-rank Meta-Ruler,” Lycoris replied. “He makes a, well, safe zone around him. It’s way harder to die in there, and powers don’t work as well.”

“Makes sense,” Vivian said.

That pwer was perfect for the assignment. She remembered how cold Whiteout’s power had made Lafayette. If there was a way to get close to him without almost freezing to death, she was game.

Even if he was a Guardian.

“Hostile supers are Whiteout, Trickstar, and three temps,” Lachlan continued. “One of the suicide supers and Whiteout are on the runways. Most of the planes were evacuated before there could be casualties, but the other three have taken the domestic terminal and aren’t allowing civilians to escape.”

“Evacuate or kill?” Barbarian asked.

“Both,” Amazon replied. “Clear a path. Trickstar is also a Ruler. They’re trying to control the airport. Killing them will remove the need for evacuation.”

“Safezone and Venus will be accompanying the ground team,” Lachlan said. “Sunrise will provide air support and engage the villains currently on the runway. Our on-site intelligence is inconsistent, but I’ll try to keep you updated. Good hunting.”

“Thank you,” Lycoris said.

The connection closed.

“That guy’s an Esper, isn’t he?” Barbarian asked. “Am I tripping?”

“Yeah, he’s a friend of mine,” Lycoris said. “Why do you ask?”

“Why do they have him pretend to be a normal, then?”

“Plausible deniability,” Lycoris replied. “The Guardians don’t want to publicly admit that they have one who can out other supers. Speaking of plausible deniability, Venus is a Washer. Don’t get caught with your pants down.”

“She’s a hero,” Shockwave said. “It’ll be fine.”

“A Guardian,” Vivian interjected. “That’s not fine. Not at all.”

“My point exactly,” Lycoris said. “Safezone should be able to keep us safe from friendly fire, but guess what organization he belongs to?”

Vivian made a disgusted sound.

Seriously. If the bad guys weren’t so obviously despicable, she could easily see herself going villain. The Guardians were the type of people to use Washer powers on heroes that were helping them.

They had done exactly that to Vivian, and now she was going to have to deal with fighting alongside the woman who had done it to her.

If she was a worse person, she would say that if the Guardians were going to violate her human rights, she would at least kill enough people to deserve it.

Back to killing again. Her thoughts kept circling back to that.

“Is the kill order on everyone?” she asked.

“Nah,” Lycoris said. “Not officially, at least. But they shot first—technically—so we’re going to be able to justify cold-blooded murder.”

“I dunno about you, but my blood is running pretty hot,” Barbarian joked.

“Whiteout’ll cool it down, don’t worry.”

“Aim to kill,” Amazon said.

“Wow, buzzkill,” Barbarian muttered.

Vivian’s heart was running like it was a goddamn engine, and they hadn’t even arrived yet. Her palms were sweaty inside her spiked gloves, and she couldn’t seem to sit still, even with her power running.

“You alright?” Lycoris asked quietly.

“As alright as I can reasonably be,” Vivian said. Her gun felt heavy on her legs. “You?”

“Fucking fantastic,” Lycoris said. “I got my ass-kicking guns ready.”

The nonchalance with which she said that actually calmed Vivian down.

At length, they pulled into the vicinity of the O’Hare International Airport. Unlike the last time, they weren’t able to immediately pull up to the domestic terminal.

It was utter chaos. On a normal day, ORD was a busy-ass airport. Even with the quarantine enforced on part of the city, there were still a lot of people coming in and out of the city or using the airport as a transfer point.

And it looked like every last one of them wanted to be anywhere but here. The roads leading to and from the airport were congested on the best of days; today, they were packed full. A discordant symphony of car horns greeted them as their van turned onto the highway path in.

Half a mile further down, Vivian could see smoke rising from a building she presumed was the domestic terminal.

They had to be the first responders, right? She couldn’t see a single police or SRU car anywhere.

“There’s our target,” Amazon said. “We may have to proceed on foot.”

In their panic to leave, cars had flooded both sides of the highway. Even with a Synth’s AI driving their van, it was looking steadily less possible to drive all the way to the terminal.

“I can’t run,” Vivian pointed out.

“I’ll carry you,” Amazon said.

“Oh, alright. Thanks. Wait, what?”

Lycoris giggled. “You heard the lady. Wanna do a shoot?”

“I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t get in the way on our way there,” Amazon replied.

The van slowed to a stop, peeling to one side of the street to avoid the oncoming wave of traffic.

“We’re a third of a mile off,” Shockwave announced.

“Got it, boss,” Barbarian said. “I’d offer to carry you, Mantis, but I think you’d rather stay unimpaled.”

“No, really?” Vivian said drily. “I can’t believe you figured that one out.”

“Entrypoint is Terminal 1, Concourse B,” Amazon said, ignoring the banter. “Hostiles are in plainclothes. If you see someone pull a weapon, drop them. Now go.”

The doors all opened at once. Vivian took a step out of the van and nearly got flattened by a shitty vomit-green sedan that looked like it had seen better days. The driver laid on the horn and flipped her off.

It was so absurd she forgot to be angry. Here she was, on her way to defeat the villains that threatened that driver’s life among so many others, and he had the audacity to flip her off for his mistake?

“Friendly,” Amazon said. “Don’t panic.”

Strong arms wrapped themselves around Vivian’s shoulders and legs. She appreciated the warning, because she definitely had not been expecting that.

Then they were moving. The A-rank Aegis didn’t officially have a Mover power, but she was definitely running faster than a normal human could. A lot faster.

Vivian burned with mild embarrassment as Amazon ducked and weaved her way through traffic, eschewing the far-away sidewalk for the direct path, but she had to admit that this was the best way to do it. She definitely couldn’t have managed this Olympic sprinter speed even if she was at the peak of health.

The others were keeping up, if barely. Shockwave’s Kinetic power apparently also granted him some degree of enhanced speed, Lycoris teleported from point to point with a graceful toss of her knife anchors, and Barbarian—well, Vivian could see why Zach might have picked the name Werewolf. He was on all fours, looking very much like an escaped Synth experiment, and by god was he fast.

Idly, Vivian wondered if people would be recording them as they ran.

Ayaka’s poisoned me, she thought affectionately.

They arrived at the terminal less than a minute after they left the car. Amazon set Vivian down gently.

Once again, she was struck by how different this airport was from usual. To be fair, she typically only got here around 4 in the morning thanks to her bus schedule, so she wasn’t the best judge of what “usual” was, but Vivian was pretty sure that the flood of people stampeding out the doors of the check-in was not that.

This was going to be an actual problem, wasn’t it? O’Hare served something like two hundred thousand passengers a day, and even if they were limited to the domestic terminal, the mass of people they were going to have to wade through was going to hamper them.

They couldn’t even get through the doors right now. The press of people was so bad that Vivian was pretty sure that they were going to permanently injure civilians on their way in.

“Step aside,” a warm, honey-smooth voice requested.

Vivian’s first thought: oh, I should step aside.

Vivian’s second thought: fuck you, die.

The crowd parted like the Red Sea, and Vivian turned to see an uncomfortably compelling face.

“Venus,” Shockwave greeted the Washer.

“Shockwave,” that same saccharine sweet voice said. “Echelon squad. Mantis. We’ve met.”

“So we have,” Vivian ground out.

“Where’s the other guy?” Barbarian asked.

“Running late,” Venus said. “Sunrise gave me a lift. The one from Chicago… Safeguard?”

Vivian’s blood ran hot. Of course Sunrise would give the Washer a lift. Venus wasn’t actively directing her power at the Echelon squad, but even the passive effect was powerful. To Vivian, the Washer’s presence practically screamed I’m a slimy bitch.

She clenched her fists, resisting the urge to poke around in Venus’ head. See how much you like it.

“Safezone,” Lycoris said. “Yeah. He’s not the fastest. Is Sunrise getting him, too?”

Venus shrugged. “Boss says he’ll catch up with us. He has my location, at least.”

“ETA?”

“No idea.”

“Fucking Guardians,” Vivian thought she heard Amazon mutter.

“Infil now or wait on protection?” Shockwave asked. “Amazon, it’s your call.”

“We go now,” their team leader decided, eyeing the parted crowd.

“Sure, whatever,” Venus said, heaving a sigh. “Don’t get me killed, alright?”

“Of course,” Amazon replied in the same tone she might use to say hey, I’m going to rip your throat out.

On that pleasant note, they entered the terminal.

“Excuse us,” Venus said. “Let us through.”

Her voice projected further than it should have. Anyone who turned her way immediately acquiesced to her commands, giving them a wide berth.

It was viscerally uncomfortable to watch. Vivian wondered if that was what she’d looked like in the interrogation room. These people were all alert, panicked—and then, as their eyes made contact with Venus’, they glazed over and moved to assist their new friend.

She couldn’t deny that the power was useful, because they got through check-in and security in a quarter of the time it had taken Lycoris and Vivian before, but it was fucking disgusting.

Venus wan’t the only one whose power was at work. Barbarian was still in his active state, looking more like a feral, spiky wolf than anything else, Shockwave had a growing ball of lightning, and Amazon was… preparing herself. Vivian looked away.

Lycoris, on the other hand, was filming.

“Seriously?” Vivian whispered.

“Yeah!” Lycoris replied. “My fans’ll love this.”

Vivian shivered. “If you say so.”

That shiver hadn’t just been from the discomfort. It was noticeably colder in here, thanks to Whiteout’s power. According to Lachlan, the A-rank Ruler was outside, which meant that it wasn’t as blood-chillingly freezing inside, but the temperature drop was still pretty immense.

Unlike how it had been at the jail, Vivian didn’t feel like her limbs were about to fall off. Sure, her nose was rapidly going numb, but the Echelon-provided suit was a strong insulator.

This was workable. Even if Safezone wasn’t here yet, she wouldn’t risk frostbite just by existing here.

Compared to the others, Vivian had much less preparation to do in terms of her power usage, but that didn’t mean she could slack, either. From her bag, she drew a small cloud of pepper spray and chalk. It wasn’t much, especially against Rulers, Kinetics, and Marksmen that could easily outrange her, but in theory, she could use it against the latter.

By obscuring herself with a cloud of thick dust, she could have some level of stealth with her artificial cover. It… wasn’t going to be very helpful if her target was a few hundred feet away, but it was better than nothing.

Carefully, she unholstered her pistol. The EHC hadn’t confiscated it. Hell, they hadn’t even checked for any illicit material on her—guns, drugs, money, or otherwise. They hadn’t provided her with anything technically illegal, either, but then again, she hadn’t asked.

She hadn’t reloaded the pistol at all, mostly because she didn’t know the first thing about guns past the fact that civilians weren’t supposed to have access to them and law enforcement agencies not named the Guardians kept on losing their gun privileges every time they bungled a major job or shot the wrong person.

Not that the Guardians seemed to be doing much better on the ethics front.

Vivian pushed that aside. She’d fired this particular pistol twice to hide the evidence of the brain-punching part of her power, but she had no idea what the capacity actually was. If it had the same eleven bullet clip—wait, no, they were called magazines, weren’t they?—then she still had nine shots remaining.

That was with the one she was holding. They’d taken damn near everything they could get their hands on from their raids. Though her bag had been full to bursting with cash, she’d made room for one other fresh, unused pistol. Even with the ammunition, it weighed less than five pounds, and she used her telekinesis to keep it hovering right next to her.

If push came to shove, she was going to have to shoot living people.

Oddly enough, she thought she could do it. Somehow, it felt more personal to point a gun at someone and pull the trigger than to use her power to induce a stroke in them, but the weight of the lives that had been lost already hung over her like a black cloud.

Vivian felt like she should be more guilty about it. It had been her fault that so many people had died, and yet she could barely muster up the remorse to feel bad about it. Vindication dominated her emotions—she was going to have to kill, and she was already okay about that.

Before she knew it, they were past security, which had been overturned. There were bodies on the ground, Vivian noted grimly.

“This one’s frozen,” Lycoris said. She’d stopped recording, Vivian noticed. Corpses probably weren’t good for the camera. “That’s Whiteout, I assume. Ooh, this guy’s chest got blown out.”

Venus made a noise of disgust, daintily stepping around the body.

“I think that’s Trickstar’s power,” Lycoris continued, kneeling down next to the corpse. She stuck her hand straight into the gaping hole in the dude’s chest.

Okay, that’s a bit much. Vivian was growing capable of stomaching the sight of the dead, especially when she didn’t know them, but her stomach turned at Lycoris straight up putting her hand inside someone’s chest cavity, even if her fingers were gloved. Bright red blood spurted up. Too bright, Vivian realized, like someone had sprinkled glitter on it.

Lycoris winced, then poofed into dust and reappeared, standing. “Yeah, Trickstar’s power.”

“Christ, Lyco,” Barbarian said, his voice an octave lower and grumblier than usual. “At least give us some warning next time.”

“Command, kill the CC cams on me, pretty please,” Lycoris said, one hand to her ear. “Well, we know they came here together. I guess they split apart later.”

“They might have wanted to use that plan we raided,” Vivian said.

“Good thing we took it back, then! It’s all coming up roses!”

“It’s coming up red, but I don’t think roses are what you’re looking for,” Venus said.

Her voice made Vivian see red. It took everything she had not to kill the other superhero here and now.

Fuck me. Killing superheroes? That’s my idea of a fair response?

The Washer had just been doing her job. That it was an utterly fucked-up job was a mark against her, but that didn’t give Vivian leave to murder her.

“We don’t have a set direction,” Amazon said. “Follow me and Barbarian. We move as a group. Don’t get separated and yell for help if you need it. Ready?”

“I still can’t run,” Vivian pointed out.

“Neither can Venus. We’ll be moving at walking speeds, don’t worry.”

“Let me anchor you, Mantis,” Lycoris said. “Just to be safe.”

“Thanks.”

Once again, Lycoris had to princess carry her to make the anchor, but Vivian was gradually growing less embarrassed about that. For someone as lethal as her, she spent a disproportionate amount of time getting carried around in someone else’s arms.

They set off, each of them with their powers prepared around them. There was no point in trying to approach this entirely stealthily, though Venus lagged behind as if using them as human shields. The airport was empty or emptying, and where people weren’t running, they were hiding in stores, bathrooms, and even in trash cans.

They found their way quickly enough. All they had to do was go in the opposite direction as the fleeing crowd. As they got closer to the far edges of the terminal, approaching the same side where Vivian and Lycoris had raided United Airlines flight 2444, they saw fewer and fewer people.

Fewer living ones, at least.

Shockwave clicked his tongue. “Regrettable. They really went all out.”

Bodies were strewn across the floor, some of them still moving. Vivian couldn’t count how many there were, but she could tell that there were a few distinct effects. There were areas where travelers were covered in a layer of frost and ice; then, there were patches of explosions that sparkled with power, which she assumed was Trickstar’s.

The temporary supers had an array of powers with less defined effects, but they were creating corpses all the same.

Vivian stared at the mess numbly, silently glad she didn’t know anyone here. It was a fucked-up thing to think, but it was better to be numb to it now than to have it prevent her from being effective in the field, right?

A pit formed in her stomach. She did want to throw up looking at the sight, but… wow, she was getting desensitized. It set her on edge, and her heart was definitely beating louder, but that was it.

She could worry about that later. For now, they needed to take down the supers who’d done this.

Vivian didn’t let herself look at the bodies for longer than she needed to. Especially not the ones that hadn’t managed to die yet.

How messed up was it that she was grateful for the ongoing clamour of fighting further down? It meant she wasn’t capable of hearing the wounded cry out in pain, which she wasn’t sure she could stomach.

The other heroes, on the other hand, seemed to be completely fine.

“This is going to be hell on the editors,” Lycoris said. “Alright. Barb, you hear any specifics up ahead?”

Barbarian’s form shifted slightly, and he tilted his mutated head. “Yeah. Two supers a few gates ahead. Temps, I think.”

“Barbarian and I will lead,” Amazon said. “Venus, check the civilians for Washer influence. Shockwave, Lycoris, Mantis, follow and back us up. Paramedics are on the way. Don’t waste your time with the civvies.”

“I have ranged support,” Shockwave said. “Ready.”

“Of course you stick me with a shit job,” Venus complained.

“In lieu of a supervisor, you report to me today,” Amazon said. “Hurry up or be dead weight. Just don’t get in our way.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Venus said. “On it, boss.”

Amazon had placed Venus outside their combat package, Vivian noted. She approved of that decision more than she wanted to admit out loud. The Guardian was untrustworthy, and Vivian in particular despised her enough that she was liable to accidentally—or “accidentally”—get the heroine killed.

It would kind of suck to not have her in the actual fight, though. Vivian didn’t know the exact circumstances required to activate Venus’ power, but it would have been real nice to be able to just walk up to a docile enemy and take them in.

She preferred knowing that she would be in her own right mind, though.

“Ready?” Amazon said. “Go.”

She took off alongside Barbarian at superhuman speeds. Shockwave, Lycoris, and Vivian followed as best as they could.

Vivian tried not to think too hard about why the floor was so sticky under her boots. There weren’t so many bodies that it was impossible to navigate around them, but there was enough blood that it wasn’t worth pathing an entirely clean track.

There were so many people who had just been cut apart. Vivian couldn’t tell which power would have done that, but there were missing limbs everywhere.

Am I going into shock? She wondered. Wouldn’t it be normal to be losing her goddamn mind right now?

If the calmness helped, it helped. She wouldn’t question it any further.

Shockwave hovered slightly above the ground, and Lycoris teleported from clean area to clean area, so it was only Vivian getting her boots dirty. She found it within herself to at least be slightly resentful of that fact.

“You’re going to have to shoot them,” Lycoris said. “I can get a good shot of you taking a shot. Wanna try?”

For the first time, Vivian found herself annoyed with the Esoteric. She was image-conscious to a fault, and the time for discussing what would make good content was not while Vivian was doing her best to not accidentally misstep and crush a dying child’s skull.

“I have the gun ready,” Vivian said. “Take a video if you want to. I don’t care.”

Ahead of them, Amazon and Barbarian turned into a gate. Vivian raised her pistol. Her hands were shaking, she noticed. Whether that was from adrenaline, shock and horror, or the cold, it was going to affect her aim, which already wasn’t great, so she stabilized the gun with her power. In addition to the other pistol she was levitating and the cloud of powder orbiting her, that pushed her carrying capacity to the limit, but it wasn’t too stressful for her to keep up.

Barbarian’s estimations had been right. There were only two of them, but neither of them were costumed. A man and a woman, both of them dressed like tourists. For a moment, Vivian wondered if maybe one of the villains was a Washer compelling these two to act, but then the man blocked a swipe from Barbarian with his arm, and the hero froze in place.

Shit. Definitely a super.

Amazon kept her distance from the man, wary of him pulling his Brawler trick again, and the woman used her power, forming a blade of blue energy and sending it arcing towards Amazon in a crescent that expanded as it traveled.

The Aegis ducked, and the crescent traveled over her head, bisecting the seats around her—and then it hit Barbarian.

A thin red line appeared at his torso, and then, slowly, the top half of the Shifter fell off, trailing intestine, power-formed flesh, and a lot of blood.

Oh. So that was who had dismembered all those travelers.

“Fuck,” Lycoris said succinctly.

Shockwave fired his lightning, catching the woman in the back, and she cried out in pain.

Amazon rushed forward while her opponent was distracted, and the man reached out to stop her today.

Oh no you don’t.

Vivian stabilized her grip with her power, aiming down the ironsights of the pistol with one eye screwed shut, and she fired.

The first shot missed, and the recoil sent a numb buzz up her arms, but her power kept it from kicking too hard.

Her ears ringing, she fired again. This time, it was closer on target, but though the man flinched backwards, he didn’t bleed. His power must have protected him.

Vivian advanced, taking one careful step at a time, and she fired and fired and fired until she couldn’t hear a damn thing and the gun clicked empty.

She didn’t hit every shot, but as it turned out, this pistol held way more than eleven bullets. Vivian managed fifteen shots before the magazine ran out. Only a third of those were on target, though, and the man’s power instinctively stopped the bullets in midair as they hit his skin.

But that was enough time for Amazon to dig clawed fingers into the slicing woman’s back and separate her entire spine from her body.

The man opened his mouth in a scream that Vivian couldn’t hear, and Lycoris appeared behind him, knife in hand. Silent. Undetectable.

But then she flickered back, her knife stuck in midair where it had failed to penetrate his back.

He was untouchable by external means.

So Vivian stalked closer and closer. He didn’t even have a gun on him, and his expression was wracked with pain. From his power or from the loss of his companion, Vivian didn’t care.

She’d grown to like Barbarian, and this man had…

A thousand is a tragedy, but one man is personal. Sunrise’s words.

The temporary super had nowhere to run, and yet he must have figured out that nothing any of the Echelon heroes coul ddo to him would stick, so he tried to bolt, giving Amazon as wide a berth as he could even if she couldn’t hurt her.

In the process, he got within Vivian’s range, and she sent the cloud of powder at him.

None of it actually hit him, but it didn’t need to. He jerked back in surprise, and Vivian focused the entirety of her power inside the temporary super.

Barbarian had talked about how much potential there was within her power, hadn’t he? She was more than a D-rank.

Vivian was done letting people she cared about get hurt. This was her fault, and she wasn’t going to hold back in fixing it.

Fifty Newtons, give or take, compressed into a telekinetic punch the size of a small pencil, was akin to a knife.

Mantis severed his tendons, and he collapsed, face contorted in pain. His power was touch-based, and none of her telekinesis involved touch.

She couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in her ears and the pounding blood in her head, but she didn’t need to.

Compressing the fifth cranial nerve causes the worst pain in the world.

The heroine watched as the man screamed and screamed and screamed, biting his tongue so hard that he bled openly from his mouth.

Only when she was satisfied with his suffering did she finally use her power to tear his brain apart.

And all Vivian felt was cold numbness and the certainty that she was doing the right thing.

Look at me, Sunrise, she thought distantly. I’m a superhero.