Last night, they reached out to every single Supervillain and offered a sit down. From what I heard, there wasn’t a single villain they missed. Hell, they invited Surge, and he was actively at war with them.
Surge refused to go to the sit-down, which was fair enough. But they were so kind as to still update him on what it was about. It was a surprise to no one that it was about the assholes who just blew up their main base earlier that day.
They’re offering money, territory, and alliances for our heads. Their security cameras picked up our faces, and they were sending out fucking bounties for us. Just telling them where we were based was worth ten grand.
This wasn’t the move I’d expected from them. It was a sign of weakness, that they were losing so badly that they needed to call out to the others for help. But I guess Agony wasn’t concerned with his pride when it came to killing us.
I sent a message out to Reload and Tóxica, letting them know that we needed to meet as soon as possible. But as I went to text Frank, I realized that I still didn’t have a phone. Their photo of him was much worse quality, taken during his attack on the deli. But it was still too risky for him to be walking out in public.
I walked over and knocked on Reload’s door, and the crash out of his bed let me know that he heard me. While I was waiting for him to open the door, I heard a gunshot tear through the air. I winced as it hit me square in the chest.
“It’s me, dumbass! At least ask who it is before shooting!” I shouted at him through the hole in the door.
He opened the door, holding the pistol that shot me. “I’m not the dumbass here, who doesn’t say who they are while knocking?”
“Whatever, I need to use your phone. Frank might be in trouble, and they took mine when we were held hostage.”
“Do you think they let me just walk out with my phone? You should try asking Tóxica, but I dunno if she has a phone. At least, I’ve never seen her use one.”
“Son of a bitch. At least tell me you know his phone number.”
“Not a clue.”
“Alright, I’m calling an emergency meeting. Go get dressed and I’ll get Tóxica. Head to the meeting room when you’re ready.”
Reload closed his door, which was now decorated with a bullet hole, and I could hear him rustling around in his room. While he got ready, I knocked on Tóxica’s door. I wasn’t certain how useful that would be in waking her if the gunshot didn’t do the job.
After a few minutes of knocking and waiting, the door suddenly flung open. “Hijo de puta, ?qué quieres?” she shouted at me, her blanket still draped around her.
“Sorry for waking you up.” I didn’t know Spanish, but I could figure that she was cussing me out. “We’re having an emergency meeting, so get ready and go to the meeting room. Some big shit is happening, and we won’t be able to fuck around for a week as planned.”
She slammed the door in my face, “Fine, Dick Taker.”
That reminded me of Reload’s artistry that he decided to put on my face. While they got ready, I headed into the bathroom of the meeting room. I started to wash my face, trying my best to clean this shit off of me.
By the time I got “Dick Taker” washed off my face, I walked out to find Reload and Tóxica sitting down. Reload had on his usual obnoxiously white outfit, complemented with golden jewelry. I had no idea why he wore it when it got stained red with blood most days. Tóxica was wearing an outfit that made me wonder if we were in a biker gang.
“Good to see you two are already here.” I sat down on one of the chairs, facing them. “We won’t be sitting around and laying low anymore, things have changed. The Disciples didn’t go on the defensive, they’re now trying harder to hunt us down. I just got contacted by Surge, apparently the Disciples are trying to get every villain in South Rain City to take us out.”
“Where’s Frank?” Tóxica asked.
“He went out, which is an issue. None of us have a way to contact him. We just need to hope they don’t catch him before he returns. But while we wait, we need to plan out our response.”
“Are we gonna go super hunting?” Reload smiled. “I’d love to put a few bullets into Plaything.”
“Not until we know who’s after us. Even if most villains will probably work with the Disciples, at least a few will remain neutral. No need to make unnecessary enemies. But I do agree with killing Plaything, that guy gives me the fucking creeps.”
“Who is Plaything?” Tóxica asked. “I do not know about the villains in this city.”
“Okay, quick run down on the smaller gangs. Plaything is a guy with toy powers, he’s creepy. I don’t know who leads Chem street, but their super has drug powers. There’s a handful of even smaller groups that have one super at most leading them, but I don’t really know that much about them. They usually last a year at most before they’re replaced by someone else.”
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“But who do you think we’ll be fighting?” Reload asked.
“I have no clue. I only have a small idea on what the Disciples are offering, but their deals are looking pretty damn generous. The supers aren’t the real issue, though, it’s the henchmen. They’re basically a mobilized group of snitches that’ll call them up the second one of them sees us. While we could evade the villains, there’s no way to hide from that many eyes.”
“Okay, so what is our plan?” asked Tóxica.
“First thing is we’re going to wait for Frank to get here. If he doesn’t show up in the next hour, we have to assume he’s dead or captured. In that case, we’re going to find another hideout. We’ve been here too long and we can’t guarantee that this place is safe. While we wait, I need the two of you to write down all of your powers for me.”
I waited near the front of the room, looking out of the window. I should’ve gone with Frank, at least I could’ve helped protect him. Now I just needed to sit by and wait for him to return. He had to return, because I wasn’t certain what we would do if he didn’t come back.
After a couple of minutes, Reload and Tóxica had finished writing down their powers. Most supers wouldn’t dare to write down their powers, the idea bordering on taboo. It was a risk to have people understand the limitations of your powers, especially another super. It meant a lot to me that they were willing to do this.
I looked over Reload’s sheet first, even if I already knew what was on it. But that was when I realized that he had been keeping an ability hidden from me.
[Super Stopper]: When summoning a weapon, you can temporarily enchant it to deal increased damage to Super Resistance.
[Secondary]: You can summon any weapon you know the construction of. The weapon will last 24 hours before disappearing.
[Fabricate]: You can summon any mundane object you know the construction of.
Fabricate was something that I had no idea about. But despite how vague it was, it could prove to be Reload’s most useful power. The restriction on [Fabricate] was extremely light, especially considering the fact that the summon was permanent.
While [Fabricate] was definitely useful, it would be a dud to grab for combat. With just how exhausting it was to use [Borrow], I couldn’t risk wasting a use on a non-combat skill. This meant that Reload only had one power that could help me out, giving me a one-in-three chance to get something useful.
I looked over Tóxica’s sheet after. Like I had assumed, she had far more abilities and far stronger ones. Reload wasn’t any stranger to fighting, but she had built herself up in an underground fighting ring. There just wasn’t any easy way to beat that type of training.
[Poison Drip]: You can make up to one pint of green or purple poison every 24 hours.
[Brute Force]: Your physical strength is doubled.
[Reptilian Transformation]: After drinking a pint of poison created by [Poison Drip], your body transforms into your reptilian form. You gain access to [Reptilian Form] abilities, your physical strength is quadrupled, and your Super Resistance is increased. You return to normal at will or after an hour has passed while transformed.
[Acid Shift][Reptilian Form]: You can turn all green or purple poison that you’ve created into a highly corrosive acid.
[Rage][Reptilian Form]: Temporarily reduces your intelligence and self control, doubling your physical strength in return.
Now I could see why she was the prize fighter in The Super Arena. She was already a strong person, far more muscular than me or Reload. Using her [Brute Force], [Reptilian Transformation], and [Rage] ability, she was able to increase her strength sixteen fold. That strength was more than enough to easily tear through metal or people.
But despite how powerful her abilities were, they were also mostly useless to me. Two of her powers wouldn’t work without being transformed, and I wasn’t certain if losing the transformation ability would make me turn back. [Poison Drip] seemed okay, but that wouldn’t help me in a fight.
The only two powers worth grabbing would be [Brute Force] and [Reptilian Transformation]. [Brute Force] still wouldn’t be great, it would just be me if I actually went to the gym. [Reptilian Transformation] had some potential, though. That would turn me into a walking tank, and it only mentioned that I needed [Poison Drip] poison, not poison that I made myself.
I had unfavorable odds when it came to getting a useful power from both of them. But that wasn’t something I could let stop me. Even if it drained energy quickly, I still had multiple tries for a reason. I was thinking through plans for each power when I heard the violent squealing of tires come from outside.
I opened the door to see Frank frantically running towards the stairs, phones in one hand and his gun in another. That was when I noticed the bullet holes in the car, alongside the bleeding gunshot wounds on his side.