Super Powereds: Year 2 (22 page)

* * *

Roy and Alice skulked along the tree line, the girl floating a few feet off the ground and occasionally lifting herself higher for perspective. Mary and Nick were long out of sight, and Alice was beginning to realize just how large this area truly was. It seemed finding the flag would be more difficult than she’d expected. On the plus side, hopefully that meant their own base would remain undiscovered for some time as well. She bobbed up over the trees once more. The longer they went without encountering anyone, not even the flag but anyone, the more Alice became concerned they were on the wrong path.

“Do you think the others are having more luck?” Alice asked as she lowered her position.

“Don’t know. Doesn’t matter,” Roy shot back simply.

“How can you say that?”

“Because I’m not on the unit with the telepath. Mary was clear: you and I go until we find a flag, an opponent, or a wall. If it’s the first one we’re done, the second we beat them and keep going, and the third we change direction.”

“Doesn’t that bother you, that we’re just sent out and told ‘keep walking’?”

“Not really,” Roy said. “I’m not big on any of that forethought or tactics crap. ‘Charge until you hit something’ is a mentality I can get behind.”

“Of course it is,” Alice sighed. She wasn’t sure she would have preferred to be with Nick right now, but Roy was hardly stimulating conversation. The boy might be charming in the right element, but when offered the prospect of violence, his attention shifted completely. “At least we’ve got a good shot against anyone we encounter. I’d be a lot more worried if it was Chad’s team.”

“If we were facing Chad’s people I wouldn’t be walking toward the other team right now,” Roy replied.

“Oh no? Then what would you be doing?”

Roy gave her a toothy smile, one that made her think of a hyena she’d once seen on the nature channel. “I’d be running toward them.”

Alice opened her mouth to reply, but a sounds like falling glass interrupted her as a bolt of blue flew by and struck Roy’s left leg, freezing it in place.

“That’s very brave talk,” Michael Clark said, stepping out from behind a tree. “But maybe you should be more concerned with the opponents you actually have.”

Before he could say another word, Alice launched herself upward, working to get out of range. A few hunks of ice wouldn’t slow Roy down much, but if she got entangled she was as good as done. The air whipped by her as she bolted higher, then sounds of something tearing through the air registering just below her feet. She glanced down to see a flashing of blue arcing through the sky and landing in the grass below. She’d barely been missed. Alice flipped around to watch the opponent. At this distance she could sway to one side or another and dodge with ease.

Back on the ground, Michael turned to a still frozen in place Roy. “Looks like your partner isn’t going to be much help.”

“What, you think she abandoned me? Don’t be an idiot. She did exactly what she was supposed to do.”

“By running away? You Powereds really are a bunch of cowards.”

“Nah, we just recognize the use of roles. Alice can go up high and spot a flag easy. I can’t do that. I have a whole different purpose.” Roy lifted his foot from the ground and brought it forcefully down, shattering its frozen encasement. “My job is the kick the ass of everyone we meet so she can do hers.”

“How nice for you,” Michael replied calmly. “You really think you can beat someone two ranks higher than you?”

“Beat you? I have no intention of beating you.” Roy took a few steps forward and flexed his hands, a small series of pops emanating from along the knuckles and joints. “I’m going to fucking wreck you.”

40.

“We’ve got two incoming, about half a mile to the southeast,” Alex said, breaking the silence in which the three stood around the flag.

“Any idea who they are?” Vince asked.

“Not a clue. They seem to be weaving a bit about. I think they’re canvasing the area thoroughly, which at least means they don’t know where we are.”

“It also means if we leave them be they’ll eventually find us,” Vince pointed out.

“That, too,” Alex agreed.

“So what should we do?” Camille asked.

“We stick to the plan,” Vince replied. “Without knowing the size of their offensive force, we can’t afford to leave the flag unguarded. Since Alex is the only one who can sense incoming presences we can’t risk him at the outset. That means you and I go handle these two. If we fail then at least he’ll know they are still coming.”

“And if we succeed I’ll take care of your wounds and we’ll hurry back to this spot to strengthen our position,” Camille added.

“You sure you can handle this? Two versus two seems good, but only one of you is a fighter,” Alex pointed out. “I could come along and help. I don’t sense anyone else getting near yet and it would probably take them a while to find this spot regardless.”

Vince shook his head. “Nick and Mary came up with this system for a reason. I trust them both more than myself at this sort of situation, so Camille and I will go handle things. Besides, they’re weak on combat personnel anyway. Maybe they did like us and paired people who could fight along with people who had other skills.”

“It’s something to hope for,” Alex said. “Make a wide swing when you leave. We don’t want them knowing the direction the flag is in. Most importantly, you two keep safe.”

“Don’t worry, we will,” Vince assured him. Camille merely nodded her agreement and tried to calm the intolerable churning in her stomach.

* * *

“Anything?” Nick asked impatiently.

“Vince and Camille are on their way to intercept Allen and Hector, Michael and Britney are still searching for our flag, Roy and Alice are fighting Adam, who I’m guessing took on Michael’s shape, and Gilbert and Terrance are blinking at random through the area, looking for any opponents,” Mary doled out concisely.

“I do adore that ridiculous range of yours,” Nick complimented. “So where is their flag?”

“No idea,” Mary replied.

“Not one of them is thinking about it?”

“Worse. None of them know where it is.”

“They don’t... oh that sneaky, sneaky bitch. She found a way to take away the advantage of having telepaths.”

“So it seems. They never even looked at the map, they just huddled up and established perimeters to search,” Mary elaborated.

“Getting rid of any chance of us gleaning the location and giving them a head start. A defense of ignorance that allows them to put all of their resources into offense. Ballsy.”

“You almost sound impressed.”

“I’m impressed by strategies that work. Right now it’s a gambit designed to overcome their biggest weakness. It does so, but only by opening other holes for us to exploit,” Nick evaluated. “But it could work, especially if they converge on our flag fast enough.”

“You could throw a little bad luck their way,” Mary pointed out.

“Too risky. Bad luck for one of them might be meeting Vince who kicks their ass, but another merely runs past him and grabs our flag. Besides, they won’t be depending on luck. If Britney was smart enough to come up with all this, she’ll have them using methodical canvassing techniques so that no stone goes unturned. Wit and skill can beat out luck when properly applied.”

“You sound like you speak from experience.”

“Let’s not pretend you're asking questions when you’ve scoured my brain enough to know the answers.”

“Fine, we’ll just- damn it,” Mary swore.

“What damn it?”

“She’s probably referring to us,” Gilbert said, bounding over a hill and into view.

“They teleported in and heard our voices,” Mary explained.

Sure enough, a second, taller figure came right on Gilbert’s heels. He wore his hair neatly styled and spun a coin deftly between his fingers. Terrance was a student Nick and Mary had only seen bust out his skill in Ranged Combat class, however it had left a large enough impression that both recognized him immediately.

“Why, Gilbert, I didn’t know you could bring people along when you teleported,” Nick said casually.

“It’s a new skill I’ve developed. Funny thing about us real Supers, we just keep on improving.”

“We take out the weaker one first, then combine forces against Mary,” Terrance directed, his eyes looking dead at Nick as he said ‘weaker one.’ If he was hoping to rile his opponent, he chose a poor strategy. Nick was under no misimpression of where he ranked in the hierarchy of fighting prowess.

“Good idea,” Nick agreed. “You wouldn’t want Gilbert to come at me alone and lose again. Especially now that he knows he’s just fighting a Powered.”

“You handle the girl,” Gilbert told Terrance. “I owe my good friend Nick here a solid punch to the jaw.”

“He’s baiting you,” Terrance said. “He wants to split our attention.”

There was a thudding sound as a large branch dropped to the ground a few feet from Terrance.

“What makes you think I’d let you gang up on him anyway?” Mary asked politely, mentally cracking the branch in half to drive home the point.

“Very well,” Terrance acquiesced. “I can handle her for at least some time. Be swift.”

“It’ll be over in a blink,” Gilbert promised.

“Wow, really? I mean, are you proud of that one? Is that a line you’re going to repeat when telling this story later in life?” Nick jeered.

“I... shut up. I’m going to kick your ass,” Gilbert said, vanishing from sight.

Nick braced himself. He didn’t know where the punch was coming from, but he knew it would be coming hard. Even worse than that, he knew that no matter what he did, he couldn’t block it. These next few minutes were going to suck heavily.

41.

Roy shook off an ice barrage and ran in swinging. Michael dodged to the side and retreated, quickly increasing the space between them. He let loose another flurry of freezing attacks which Roy didn’t even bother to avoid. They slowed him down a bit; however, the real problem dragging out this fight was Michael’s attack style. Instead of handling things head-on like he always had, Michael was using a ranged attack style and dodging like a spider monkey every time Roy came close enough to deliver a solid blow. Admittedly, Roy hadn’t sparred often with Michael in class, and given that he didn’t have enhanced strength or endurance it was a smart way to fight, yet something about it seemed to go in the face of the bald boy’s usual brash tactics.

Roy knew this was dragging on longer than it needed to, and the more time Alice spent up in the air, the more attention she was going to draw to them. He pushed off from his starting position and charged at Michael. It would open him up to getting frozen on vital parts of the anatomy; but that wouldn’t matter if he could land a good punch. Without even his ice-armor on to absorb the impact, Michael would be slowed significantly, if not crippled outright. All Roy had to do was make sure he targeted the appendages so he didn’t accidentally kill him.

Roy quickly closed the gap, taking a pair of freezing shots to his chest. He could feel the cold seep deep into his bones; however, it would take a lot more than that to stop Roy Daniels. He drew closer and readied himself to let fly, only to feel his footing go out from under him at the last moment. What should have been a fight-ender turned into a barely glancing shoulder blow as Michael slid away. Roy regained his balance and realized the ground beneath his run had been turned into solid ice. It was smart, it was crafty, and it confirmed what Roy had already begun to suspect.

“You had me going for a bit there,” Roy said, facing his opponent once more. “One thing, Michael would never think to take out someone’s footing on a charge. He’d be cooking up a way to beat them fist to fist.”

“Michael is something of an idiot,” Michael’s doppelganger agreed. “Strong, and with a useful power, but he lacks any real creative thinking.”

“I have to say, Adam, we figured you would take on Britney’s form,” Roy remarked.

“We’re weak on fighting people. It made more sense to double up on our heaviest hitter,” Adam/Michael said.

“Too bad you guys don’t have any real fighters,” Roy said. “I’m not going to take any joy in crushing you like this. You don’t have Michael’s training or experience in getting hit. You’re already favoring that shoulder. If you’d taken the form of someone like Chad or Stella you could have at least handled a few knocks.”

“It is indeed unfortunate that there are so few people with damage resistant bodies among us,” Adam/Michael agreed. “Hector’s rubbery form offers some protection, however it would have been quite inefficient against you. That’s all right; I’ve already found a way to put myself back in this fight.”

Before Roy could banter back, it was Adam/Michael’s turn to charge. He raced forward, freezing blasts flying ahead of him. Roy took one in the shoulder that formed into a solid block, and before he could recover another struck him directly in the face. There were a few dark, primitively terrifying moments when Roy couldn’t see or breathe. He kept his brain from going into panic mode with forced control and used his free arm to tear away the ice like it was little more than packing foam.

“Real cute, asshole,” Roy said, taking a deep gulp of air. “Too bad that’s not going to beat me.”

“Didn’t think it would,” Adam, just Adam, replied. “But as you said, for this fight to be any good, I need the form of someone who can take a super-strength punch. That meant getting close enough to touch you.” Adam’s form was already growing wobbly, his body altering itself to take on the new shape it had grazed. There was a swift sound of muscle condensing and bones rearranging and just like that, a whole new person stood before Roy and under Alice.

“What the shit?” Adam/Hershel cursed as he felt his new body settle. “Why am I the fat kid?”

“Oh my, you didn’t realize I was a conditional shifter did you?” Roy laughed as he shook off the last of the ice. “My natural form is Hershel. It takes a trigger to bring out all the magnificence you see before you.”

“I don’t suppose you’d like to tell me what that is,” Adam/Hershel ventured sheepishly.