Supplying Supers - Ch. 16 - The Gale - Beta (Patreon)

Tuesday June 13th, 2025 Mazuma City, Mazuma Amerika

Gunner

OSDB Hero Rank: N/A - Civilian

OSDB Threat Rating: N/A - Civilian

When Gunner walked up the side ladder to the warehouse office, he saw Flux and Velocity sitting in the twin chairs in front of his desk. Flux caught his eye immediately.

She was wearing his favorite office outfit of hers. It was a simple black skirt and white blouse, but it hugged her figure perfectly. With the top few buttons unclasped, her push-up bra did wonders to draw his eyes toward her cleavage. The top bun paired with the glasses just did something for him.

There was no denying her beauty, but he’d never looked at her that way before. He’d always seen her as someone to be protected. But their time in the tub changed things. She’d made her initial intentions known, and that muddied his feelings.

Velocity, on the other hand was still wearing the clothes she worked in. Only she was dressed down in her black cargo pants paired with a black tank top. Her perky breasts made it obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra. Her pale athletic arms and shoulders shined in the overabundant ambient light. It gave her an attractive working-woman look. One that he thoroughly appreciated.

Both of their heads darted toward him as soon as he and Daniel walk toward the door. When Gunner opened it, they both jumped to their feet. Flux gasped and bounced over the table, sliding into a pool before slithering in front of his feet. When she popped up, she stared at him wide eyed, examining his torn clothes.

“What happened?” she yelled.

Gunner let out a short chuckle. “It’s okay, no reason to be alarmed.”

“Did you get into an accident?” Velocity asked.

“No… I had a run in with the Paragon Alliance.”

“They did this to you?” Flux shouted, her nostrils flaring. “Tell me right now. Did they hurt you?”

Gunner held up his hand. “Flux… it’s okay. They were just investigating the murders.”

“You should have seen it,” Daniel began. “Berserker, Divinity, and Forte landed in front of the car. Berserker ripped off the SUV door and pulled Mr. Webb out. They roughed him up while they questioned him about Justice and Tetro, but Mr. Webb was a champ. He didn’t give them nothin’.” Daniel handed his phone to the two women. “Here. There are dozens of videos of it already on the internet.”

“Daniel don’t—”

Before Gunner could stop him, Flux snatched the phone from Daniel’s hand. She and Velocity watched it. After a few minutes, Flux dropped the phone, her hands shaking.

Everyone took a step back as Flux’s body bulged with her rage. Her arms tensed and a boiling sound popped into the air. Purple tentacles flapped wildly out of her back. She stood with gritted teeth as she stared at Daniel with deadly intent.

“They what!” Flux shrieked. “Where are they? I’ll cut off every hand that touched Mr. Webb. I’ll paint the city with their blood. I’ll kill every single person who ever mutters their name. I’ll—”

Gunner set down the briefcase he was holding, reached out, and pulled Flux into his chest. “Shh… it’s okay.” He slowly patted her back as he said, “Like I said, I’m fine.”

Her hulking form slowly retreated into its smaller size as she wrapped her arms around him. When he pulled back, she looked up at him with glistening eyes. “But what they did is unforgivable. They deserve to die.”

“I want you to let it go,” Gunner said, gripping her shoulders. “Please promise you’ll let it go.”

Flux buffed her cheeks and turned away. “I don’t think I can do that.”

“I need you to. For me.”

Flux sniffled and nodded. “Okay.”

“Thank you,” Gunner smiled. “I know it’s hard.”

“You’re right! They deserve a fate worse than death.”

“You really think you could take on the Paragon Alliance?” Velocity asked.

Flux looked at Velocity dead in the eyes. “I’d destroy every single one of them if it wasn’t for Hiswishes.”

Velocity gave a slight smirk and raised her hands behind her head. “I believe you. Kind of reminds of the conversation we had on the car ride down to—”

Flux spun in a blur, clasping her hand over the assassin’s mouth. Flux pushed her backward and the two whispered briefly before Flux stepped to the side. Her cheeks glowed a bright red.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Velocity said with a smile.

“Something I need to know about?” Gunner asked.

“No!” Flux said.

“All right then.”

Gunner picked up his briefcase and walked to the lone desk in the center of the empty office. He set his things on the top and motioned for the others to take a seat. Both Daniel and Velocity took the chairs while Flux sat on the edge of his desk.

“So these murders sound kind of crazy,” Velocity said. “Flux and I watched some of the news footage on our way down. It’s supposedly some kind of serial killer or something?”

“That’s what the MCPD and now the SOC are telling the public,” Gunner said before flipping open his briefcase. “But it’s more involved than that.” He popped the locks on his briefcase and opened it. After pulling out a thick manila folder, he set it in the middle of the desk and pulled out pictures and sheets. “I believe this to be part of some sort of cult.”

“A cult?” Velocity asked, crossing her arms. “Like wearing dark robes, speaking in tongues, that sort of thing?”

Gunner let out a short laugh. “Yeah, something like that. I believe an individual or individuals are somehow capturing supers and killing them as part of a ritual.”

“A ritual for what?”

“I don’t know. But whatever they’re doing requires a lot of power. They’re targeting supers. They started small. But if my assumption is right, they just snagged two big ones.”

“Who?”

“Justice and Tetro.”

Flux glared at Gunner, and he shook his head at her. He didn’t want to go through the motions of her asking about his feelings and if he was okay. After Justice and Flux’s run in back at the apartment, he knew she didn’t really care about her. She just cared how he felt, which he appreciated.

The second reason was because he didn’t really know how he felt. He obviously cared for Justice and what she meant for the city. She was a genuinely good person. A needed beacon of light to combat all the crime and villains. She was a symbol of hope for many. An opposite end to the balance that needed to a be maintained in Mazuma City.

However, letting his personal feelings impede making complicated decisions was not ideal. If she was still alive, he obviously wanted to rescue her. But he needed a clear head in case he needed to make the right call. The city had to come first.

“Are you serious?” Velocity asked, wide-eyed.

“Yes. They haven’t been confirmed, captured, or killed. However, the reason the other members came after me today was because Tetro and Justice are missing. They questioned me about their whereabouts and what business I’d done with them.”

“This just got a lot more serious. Someone powerful enough to take out members of the Paragon Alliance? There can only be a few people powerful enough that could do that.”

“On our plane, yes.”

Velocity looked over at Daniel, who shrugged, before squinting back at Gunner. “What do you mean, our plane?”

Gunner looked up at Flux, and the two shared a smile. He reached in his briefcase and pulled out a second envelope, and set it between the two. The contents of which contained all the ancillary research he’d done over the previous night.

He held his hand over the envelope and glanced at Daniel and Velocity. “What I’m about to tell you is classified information. The kind of thing that only a handful of people on the planet know is true, mainly top security officials and country heads of state.”

“This is sounding like some Area 51 shit… Sir,” Daniel jested.

“This is some Area 51 shit,” Gunner said with pointed brows. “This is the kind of thing that nut jobs speculate about on the internet. The kind of thing people go missing for. It’s the kind of thing that I’m putting my life at risk by telling both of you. And the only reason I am is because I trust you both with my life.”

Daniel swallowed hard. “I’m sorry for the poor joke, Mr. Webb.”

“It’s all right. I just want you both to realize the gravity of the situation.”

“We both understand,” Velocity said, glancing over at Daniel.

Gunner stood straight and walked around the group as he spoke. “If you weren’t already aware, our solar system is not just a stationary object spinning in a single spot. It’s actually traveling through space. If it makes it easier for you, you can think of the sun as a bullet shot from a gun, and then the planets are circling around it as it travels.”

“Huh, I never realized,” Daniel said.

“The reason this is important is because we’re constantly flying through space and theoretically can come in contact with something. Well, that happened. We’re not sure what the specific date was, but our earth flew through an object like a fly through a web. However, instead of getting stuck in the web, our velocity carried us through it, bringing a portion of it with us.”

“Kind of like when you’re on your bike and you fly through one.”

“Yes, exactly. Now this event occurred early in our planet’s life. So effectively it’s been with us for millions of years. This means there was a time where our reality and what we call the Gale were separate entities. However, it’s spent so much time traveling with us that it adapted. It started growing and integrating itself. To where, now, it’s a part of our daily lives.”

“How so?” Velocity asked.

“Well… you…”

“Me?”

“You and every super result from the Gale’s further integration into our world. Using the web analogy again, a thread connects every human to the Gale. Supers, on the other hand, are connected by multiple threads. The more powerful the super, the thicker the strand or the bigger the bundle. When you activate your abilities, you’re actually pulling power from the Gale. Whereas someone like Tetro, who’s powers results from lab experimentation, is only connected by one.”

“What do the threads do for civilians?”

Gunner brought his thumb to his chin and thought for a moment. He snapped his finger and said, “Have you ever heard of the stories of a brother on one end of the world who thinks something has happened to a family member, only to get a dreaded call that their sibling died just moments before? Or two people sharing the exact same dream, even though they’ve never met? This is because we’re all connected.”

Velocity lowered her head. Her eyes bounced between the ground and Gunner as she spoke. “My sister and I. We’ve always shared this special bond. I swear there would be times where she would twist her leg or smash a finger and mine would ache, too. I always felt like I could sense when she was in danger just moments right before it happened.”

“Well, there you go,” Gunner said with a smile. “The Gale’s further integration in our world has us all connected. It’s also why in the last few decades we’ve actually seen an increase of supers around the world.”

“So are you saying that eventually everyone on earth is going to become a super?”

Gunner waved his finger. “That’s actually an excellent question. The answer is no. We believe we’re close to a vertex point where the Gale can only support so many supers at one time. This has been shown where in the last ten years the peak number has begun to slow down compared to the burst we had in the sixties. Much like our own population.”

“So the Gale is a different plane of existence?” Daniel asked.

“Yes.”

“And it’s integrating itself into our own?”

“Yes.”

“What happens if it fully integrates?”

“We don’t believe that’s possible. Like two magnets coming together, there is an attraction, but one will not replace the other. However, that Area 51 thing I was talking about before? With the Gale pulling itself closer and integrating itself into ours, it creates these weak points in our reality and, from these weak points, rifts between our world and the Gale can occur.”

“What are rifts?” Velocity asked.

“Like tears in space and time that would allow you to travel between our world and the Gale. At Area 51, they use a machine called a Gale Gate. When they power it up, it creates a tunnel between both places and allows our scientists the ability to study it.”

“Ooh, what’s the Gale like?” Daniel asked. “Have you ever been?”

Gunner and Flux shared a quick smile before Gunner walked back to the front of his desk. “Yes, I have. Probably the most out of anyone else. As far as what the Gale is like.”

Gunner stopped and tapped his foot as he thought for a moment. “Take a copy of our world, but make it almost completely inhospitable. The sky is a deep red with constant thunder and lightning. Torrential winds blow sand everywhere, wearing everything down into rusty visages of themselves. The air is hot and humid. It’s also full of bestial monsters, deadly entities, and evil spirits.”

“It sounds horrible.”

“Yeah, it’s not the most pleasant place to be. It’s assumed the Gale is and or was a sort of highway that connected multiple dimensions together. However, there hasn’t been much progress in understanding the Gale in that regard because of how dangerous it is. Last I’d heard, the SOC stopped sending recon units outside of the initial five hundred meter perimeter.”

“Because they would get lost?”

“Because they’d get killed or go MIA.”

“How do you know all of this?” Velocity asked.

“I have a personal connection to it. My mentor taught me a lot. I’ve spent many years studying it. I was also one of the founding members of the Department of Paranormal and Supernatural Investigations for the United States government.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” Velocity said.

“Yes, well, its existence isn’t supposed to be common knowledge. It’s actually been absorbed by the SOC now.”

“Why are you telling us all of this?”

Gunner leaned over the desk and opened the files. He pulled out the ones showing dead supers’ bodies and Cleaver’s hideout. After leaning forward, he tapped on a body and said, “See these runes?”

“Oh shit, that’s brutal,” Daniel said, bringing his fist up to his mouth.

“These are Gale runes.”

“It has its own language?” Velocity asked.

“Yes. And it can be used to cast powerful spells.”

Velocity snorted. “Like actual magic?”

“Is it so hard to believe?” Gunner asked. “We have supers with literally every ability imaginable. Until we understood how supes got their powers, those who we consider Ageless, like Berserker and Divinity, were believed to be gods or demigods. They had their own religious sects, tomes of prayer, and followers. They still do somewhat. Divinity’s being the most prevalent. Another question to ask yourself is, do you truly understand your powers?”

Velocity shook her head. “I only did the minimum registration. Depending on which country performed them, the full evaluation could be quite… invasive.”

“That’s what I’ve heard,” Gunner said, tapping his chin. “Before people educated themselves, they called things they didn’t understand magic. The runes are used to call forth the Gale, allowing the wielder to manipulate it at a very low level. However, depending on the components, a ritual could be used to cast powerful spells.”

“And that’s why you’re worried.”

Gunner nodded. “Whoever is carving these runes is doing so as part of a ritual. They’re gathering power for something. My leading assumption is to open their own rift.”

“Why would someone want to do that? You just told us it’s a shit show.”

Gunner shrugged. “Could be to explore it. Could be done as part to destroy it or us. Maybe they think they can draw power from it. Or could be to bring something through.”

Velocity bit on the end of her nail. “If it’s as bad as you say, then I’m guessing you want to stop it.”

“That’s the plan,” Gunner said before pulling out the final folder. He put it on top of the others with a heavy thump. “I’m planning on putting a team together with the goal of continuing the investigation, finding out who’s doing this, and putting a stop to them.”

“Why not just let the SOC handle it?”

Gunner sighed. “I don’t have confidence in their ability to do the job.”

Velocity picked up the folder and opened it. She flipped through the first couple of sheets and her eyes widened. “These are SOC dossiers.”

“Yes.”

“How’d—you know what, I’m not even going to ask. You have your ways.”

“I do,” Gunner said with a big shit-eating grin.

“There are heroes, criminals, and freelancers in here,” Velocity said without looking up.

“I’m aware.”

“And you’re expecting to pull a team from this list?”

“I am. There are close to a hundred dossiers in there, from supers all across the United States. Everyone on that list has something they can bring to the table, and something I have to bring them there. With you, Flux, and I sorting through them, I figure we could pick the best. Once we’ve picked out the team, we invite everyone to neutral ground. Explain the situation and go from there.”

Velocity whistled and raised her brows. “Not to be rude, but I think you’re being a little overly optimistic. The other freelancers I’m not worried about. You pay them enough money, they’ll pretty much do anything for you. But heroes and villains in the same room? You might as well destroy the surrounding mile.”

“You let me worry about that,” Gunner said, grinning. “I can be… persuasive when I need to be.”

Velocity smiled and shrugged. “I think you’re a little crazy, but I guess we all are a little bit.”

“So does that mean a yes?”

Velocity cocked her brow. “Yes, what?”

“I want you as part of the team.”

Velocity took in a deep breath and let out before standing up. She walked behind the chair. When she turned around, she let out a heavy sigh and leaned her head on her fingertips.

“I don’t know,” Velocity said. “I mean, I understand the urgency, but cults, magic, and Gales or whatever it is. It’s… a lot. And I know you pay well, Mr. Webb. But I’ve got my own problems I’m working through. And I—”

Gunner raised a finger and waved her to follow. “Before you finish, hold that thought, and come with me.” When his assistant tried to follow, he shouted without looking. “Just us two, Flux.”

Gunner opened the door to the metal decking and allowed Velocity to walk through. When he closed the door behind him, she sat on the edge of the railing, eyeing him. Her braided blonde ponytail curled around her neck and over her shoulder, creating a visual line into her glistening cleavage.

She caught him staring and smirked when Gunner swiftly turned and leaned on the railing beside her. When he looked back down at her, she crossed her arms, pulling her shirt down further and making them look bigger. He wasn’t sure if she was doing it on purpose, but knew she was trained as a femme fatale and he wouldn’t put it past her.

When she looked up at him, he smiled and began his spiel. “Look. I understand. I threw a lot at you. It’s going to take some time to process it. But like I said when I started, I’m asking you first because I trust you. That list of names in there? They’re chosen because I can either pay them off or because I’ve got dirt on them to bring them to the table. I can’t trust any of them, which is why I need you and Flux by my side. I need people I can trust.”

“I get that, Mr. Webb, but like I said. I don’t know if I can commit to something like this right now. I’ve got my own problems.”

“Does this have to do with Shrapnel?”

Velocity’s head jerked up, and she frowned. “What?”

“I may be stepping out of line here, but I know about the money you’ve been stashing away. You completely disappeared after you put your sister away. Then suddenly you come back and only take the highest paying jobs. For the last three years, you’ve been doing job after job. You don’t spend your money. You have no assets. So that’s telling me you’re storing it for something. Something that requires a lot of capital. Something like breaking your sister out of Level 9.”

Gunner could see the rage in her eye as she clenched her jaw. But as she stared up at him, it dissipated and she hung her head. “I can’t do it anymore. Every night I go to bed, all I remember is seeing her lethargic face from the tranq they used to sedate her. Then the police rushing up to seize her as I held her limp body. All she could do was ask me why, and all I could do was cry.”

A tear fell down Velocity’s cheek. “When I close my eyes, I hear her sobbing like when we were kids. I’ve heard horror stories of what they do to supes in Level 9. I can’t live with myself knowing that she’s locked away in a place she could be tortured. We went through enough of that as kids. I want to pay you to help me break her out.”

“I hate to say it, Velocity, but there was a reason she went to Level 9,” Gunner said somberly. “She left a trail of destruction across Europe, even destroying the Eiffel Tower. She can’t control herself.”

“I can!” Velocity cried. “I’m the only person who can. When I get close to her, her power doesn’t trigger. That’s why they used me to subdue her in the first place. I need my sister back. Please… help me.”

Gunner pushed himself off the rail and stroked his beard. What she was asking for was nigh impossible. Level 9 was a supermax prison for supers. It was built in the middle of the Atlantic, a mile underground. The guards were all C and D class supers, who rotated on monthly shifts. It was meant to be impossible to break out of. No one had ever succeeded.

Gunner turned and looked down at Velocity. Her black eye makeup dripped down her cheek. She’d always answered his call, no matter the difficulty of the job. He felt like he owed it to her.

“You know if we do this, you and your sister are going to be on the run and hunted forever,” Gunner said.

Velocity sniffed and wiped her cheek. “I know.”

“Are you sure this is what you want?” When she nodded, he did so too. “Then I will help you. But I’d like to make a counteroffer.”

“What do you want?”

“You’re going to need a lot of money to stay hidden. You deserve to share that with your sister. So, instead of you paying me for it, work this job for me. Help solve these murders and keep Mazuma City safe. If you do that for me, I’ll help you, free of charge.”

Velocity lowered her head. Her eyes darted from side-to-side as she took a moment to think. When she gazed back up, she pushed herself off the railing and extended her arm. “Deal. But only if I can get a ride back to the hotel and get a shower. I stink.”

Gunner burst into laughter and shook her hand. “Fair enough. Let me get back inside and grab the briefcase. I’ll have Daniel drive us back to the hotel, all get cleaned up, then you, Flux and I can go over the list of supers to invite to the meeting.”