"Wow..." Stella said, not even touching her coffee.
"Yeah," Jake replied, taking a sip from his.
"So all this time you were alive? You, Ivy, Zack, Paulina..."
"Yeah."
"And you had to erase your identities to protect people like me?"
"Yeah. I hope you're not..."
"Mad? Why would I be? This is a much better outcome than the bullshit I assumed."
"Oh really?"
"I thought Milten was an evil piece of shit that mind-controlled you or something."
"Well, you're right about the piece of shit part," Jake chuckled.
"Yeah... that Ivy stuff... Luthor... if he's like that, why work for him?"
"Cuz he's my best chance at keeping this city safe. Say what you want, but his ways of doing things are effective. To a scary degree, I might add."
"Well, the results speak for themselves, I suppose. Still, I... I don't want you near him, especially with how he is now."
"Yeah, I know, but at this point, it's better I stay to keep an eye on him and his plans."
"I see. Well, let's change the subject cuz I'm feeling a little too gloomy. My brother is back from the dead! How are you? How is Ivy? How..."
Suddenly a loud beeping started. It came from Jake's pocket.
"Duty calls?"
"Yeah. Hold on a sec," Jake answered and picked up his communicator. Milten gave everyone a new set of them just in case they encountered any trouble.
"Jake?! Where are you?! Ivy's been looking all over for you!" Zack screamed over the comms.
"I'm... uh..."
"Get downtown now! Milten just tracked down the bases of the two Dragon Clan factions. Max and Stacya are taking on the Fire Breathers. Paulina, Ivy, and I are chasing down the High Flyers. We need backup!"
The communicator went off.
"Seems I..."
"Have to go? Of course. I'm not gonna stop you. Just, be careful okay?"
Jake looked at her for a moment. Stared into her eyes. She was scared, confused, with a hint of anger... he needed to talk to her. Clear the air.
Sadly, that had to wait...
"I'll try."
And in a moment, he vanished in a thick cloud of blue energy.
"Is he coming?" Ivy said as she slithered onto another building.
"Yeah, but he might take a while," Zack answered, extending his arm to grab another building.
"Where is he?" Paulina asked as she flew past both of them for a short moment.
"Don't know, but it's nowhere good, I imagine. He was stammering," Zack answered, reaching for the next building.
"Ivy? Any idea where he might be?" Paulina asked.
"If I did, he'd be here by now," Ivy answered with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Well, that doesn't matter now. We can take these guys on our own," Zack said boldly as he pointed to the High Flyers.
The trio were chasing the gangsters throughout the rooftops across downtown. An hour ago, Milten woke them up and called them to his office for a mission briefing. After his interview, he wanted to capitalize on his popularity by capturing the Dragon Clan once and for all.
Luckily, he had contacts in both factions of their little gang war, and they gave him all the info he needed to find both their bases.
Now all he needed to do was send the squad to capture them all: Green Guardian, Obsidian, and Mamba on the High Flyers, while Red Shadow and Sharkwoman took care of the Fire Breathers.
Milten wanted to assign Jake to help with the High Flyers, but he was nowhere to be found and they didn't have time to wait for him.
After the meeting, Zack's group broke into the High Flyers' base and after a brief scuffle, the gang suddenly grew wings and flew out of there.
The gang used magic—a rarity these days—to transform their arms into reptilian wings that allowed flight.
And now here we are, the gang flying across downtown while the trio try to bring them down...
"Obsidian! Give me a lift!" Zack said as he shrunk to the size of a tennis ball and jumped towards her. She replied by morphing her arm into a cannon and catching him with it.
"What are you two doing?" Ivy asked.
"Trying something we practiced during our little break. After the Galan incident, I picked up on a new trick. Let her rip!" Zack shouted, his voice nothing but a mere squeak Ivy barely heard. Paulina followed his orders and shot him at the High Flyers.
Due to his size, they weren't quick to notice him flying at them, something he took advantage of. Then came his favorite part: actually landing on one of them.
Suddenly one of the High Flyers crashed into the ground with the force of a speeding bullet.
Then another...
And another...
And another...
And another...
And another...
And another...
And another...
And another...
Their leader, Wyvern, turned around and noticed several of his men were on the ground unconscious and being bound by nets made by Obsidian's cybernetics.
"What the hell is this?" Wyvern shouted at his remaining men, but they were just as confused as he was.
Suddenly another man fell.
Wyvern used his magic to give himself the eyesight of an eagle and looked closer at the scene of the attack.
Then he noticed a small green speck flying towards another one of his men.
"The green one..." He muttered angrily.
Quickly he flew over to it and turned his toes into large blade-like talons. Once he got a good look at the speck, he sent his talons at it as fast as he could.
Zack was quick enough to notice, though, and blocked it with his right arm.
Then using the momentum, he sent himself flying to the remaining men and ricocheted off them, knocking each one out until Wyvern was the only one still flying.
"You dirty scum! How are you so strong despite being so small?"
"Come closer and find out!" Guardian shouted with a smile, his voice still a small squeak due to his size.
Wyvern gave a battle cry, which sounded like the screeching of an eagle, and flew towards him to strike, but then his senses went haywire, telling him to turn around.
He did and immediately blocked what was coming: a well-timed stone beam from Mamba.
His wings immediately started turning to stone, causing him to fall. Zack, still a speck, was falling towards him. Wyvern shed his wings before the stone effect could spread and focused his attention back to Guardian. He then concentrated his magic into his fist and sent a fireball at him.
Zack turned back to his normal size and punched the ball of flames away with all his might. He then straightened himself to catch up to Wyvern, who was preparing another fire attack. This time, the flames were blackened...
The two then clashed in an explosion of black flame, sending them both crashing into the nearest buildings. Lucky for Zack, Ivy was quick to catch him before he actually landed, thanks to orders from Obsidian.
"Thanks," Zack said with a smile.
"Don't mention it," Ivy said, trying to hold back hers.
"What the hell's with this guy? Wings? Talons? Now black flames? Who is he? Mr. E lite?" Zack joked.
Ivy did everything she could to hold back her laugh.
"It's magic," Paulina chimed in.
"Magic?! That shit's real?" Ivy said.
"The Dragon Clan heads are experts in it. I know little about the techniques, though. Just that it's being used. We're bound to encounter more users the longer we fight them," Paulina explained.
"Come on Mamba. With all the shit we've been through, magic is where you draw the line? We even saw it during the Kobra Klan fight," Zack mused as he punched her arm lightly.
Ivy shrugged.
"How did you do that?" She asked.
"You mean the ricochet thing? Well, it depends on the angle you..."
"No, not that, you idiot," Ivy said, cutting him off. "I mean, how did you beat those guys to the ground while being so small? Is that even possible?"
"With my ability? Yeah. During our three-day break, I realized my inability to maintain consciousness in my giant form was affecting the whole team. Obsidian and I trained for a while and I learned the main cause of that was I couldn't handle my own weight at that size."
"So you..."
"Learned how to expand my size while keeping my weight intact. I've only learned how to maintain my current weight while small, though. And another trick."
"Another trick?"
"Yeah, I..."
Suddenly a black fireball came hurtling at the trio. Paulina was quick to shield them, but Zack was quicker to punch it away.
Once the smoke cleared, Wyvern stood before them, already in a battle stance. He wore grey battle armor with various foreign markings all over its war plate and a helmet that sported an elaborate system of horns and teeth. He also carried some kind of black blade.
"Seems he still wants to go," Zack said with another smile.
"Where is the Blue Shadow?" Wyvern asked as he spawned more black flames.
"Why do you want to know?" Ivy asked, stepping forward.
"The Dragon Clan is fractured," Wyvern answered with a sly smile forming on his lips. "Dao D is dead. My siblings have gone to war over who the head should be. It is only right the one who slays Dao D's killer leads the Clan."
"You're not using my man for some sick war game."
"Apparently not, since he's not here. Bring him to me and I'll give you all a quick death."
"You're insane if you think I'm doing that," Ivy said, but soon felt Zack's hand on her shoulder.
"Let me take care of him, Mamba. I want to try something."
Ivy reluctantly backed off, partly due to staring at Paulina's face once Zack talked to her.
"You? You?! The green one?! Don't make me laugh. Just because you took down my men and had a brief clash with me doesn't mean we are on equal terms."
"Yeah. I agree," Zack mused and got into his own battle stance.
"I saw your pitiful display against Brute of Broker's Legion the other day. If you honestly believe anyone will take you seriously after that horrendous clown show, then you're more stupid than I perceived."
"Would you just shut up and fight?"
Wyvern's stance dropped for a moment.
A brief one.
He pulled his sword out of its scabbard and lunged at him, black flames forming in his free arm and the opened mouth of his mask.
Zack pulled his fist back and closed his eyes.
"G...Guardian..." Ivy said, taking a step to interfere, but Paulina stopped her.
"He's much stronger than he was before. I made sure of that," she said, holding her back.
Ivy kept quiet and watched.
"The Dragon Clan is the highest criminal authority in the country right now. If you think its future head is losing to the likes of you, then you've got another thing co..."
"Aw jeez, just attack already!"
Wyvern obliged and swung his blade at Zack's neck, covering it in a stream of black flame.
Zack quickly grabbed the sword and broke it in two.
"Wh...what?...how did you...?"
Zack still held the remaining end of the blade, keeping Wyvern in place, and turned to Ivy.
"Remember my other trick?"
"Y...yeah," Ivy said, caught off guard.
"Well, here it is."
Zack then grabbed Wyvern's face and slammed him into the ground as hard as he could. The impact was so intense it cracked his skull and knocked the poor criminal unconscious.
"I found a way to expand my density," Zack said with a smile and let go of him. "Hurts like hell to use, though."
"That's great, Guardian. And you actually managed to move your arm this time," Paulina said as she approached Wyvern and covered him in a net like his brethren.
"Yeah, first time trying it for real. Luckily I'm strong enough now."
"That's crazy! In three days you've already picked up all this extra shit?" Ivy asked.
"Yeah. And I'll pick up more with time. If only Jake saw that. Would've loved to see the look on his face."
"Where is he anyway? He still isn't here," Ivy asked.
"Let's not dwell on it right now. He's on his way anyway, so you can ask him then. For now, we've got to gather up all these criminals for interrogation before..."
Paulina paused.
"What's wrong, babe?"
"I just got a message from Red. Stacya found the Fire Breathers' base and the two were gonna engage, but Amazo's there."
"What? That asshole is probably there to steal the credit," Zack said, shaking his head.
"Sounds about right."
"Wait, am I missing something? Who's that?" Ivy asked.
"Never heard of Amazo? He's a big deal among the Super community."
"Sorry, I don't follow that crap. Supers are cool and all, but team names, team members... seems like a waste of time. Especially for a team we are supposed to be superior to."
"He's a racist shithead. That's all you need to know. He and Sharkwoman in the same room won't end well, especially with someone like Red on the scene."
"Yeah. Let's capture these guys quick and go help them ou..."
A small clock suddenly landed right between them. As it started to glow, Paulina realized what it was and shouted.
"FLASHBANG!"
She was too late, however, as the bomb exploded, leaving high-pitched ringing and blindness in its wake.
Paulina managed to re-establish her vision a few seconds later.
Ivy grew sharp claws and sliced out her eyes, then quickly replaced them with new ones. Thanks to her new shadow form, she barely felt a thing.
Zack, on the other hand, was still reeling from the flash.
"Danger Squad. I have to commend you for your efforts," a deep voice said. It was clearly altered by some kind of machine.
Paulina looked around to see they were surrounded by several figures in black suits numbering in the fifties.
They all wore dog masks.
"Mr. E? Kobra Klan? Dao D? The Lost Light? Broker? Galan? So many threats taken care of in such little time. I should clap, really. Impressive stuff," the voice said, walking closer. Paulina took a good look at him and immediately recognized him.
The Watchman.
A member of the Vigilante League, a group of supers that left the Super Society for a mysterious reason she never got to know. They had formed their own team and started a brutal campaign against crime. Although they rarely popped up, when they did, a trail of bodies was always left in their wake.
He wore a dark cloak and a large sun hat that covered his face every time he looked down. What little she saw of his suit gave her the impression of some prototype to Milten's Warzone armor.
This was the vigilante the rumors spoke of. They said he faced Major Payne in multiple duels and came out on top all the time.
Not a figure these three could realistically beat.
Not without Jake...
To be continued...