Travis raises his fists and spins around, freezing the moment he does. He instantly recognizes the face smirking back at him, It belongs to Jury, another aspiring hero. He stands with his arms crossed, the wind from the open door flaring his black-and-white costume, which was made to look like a sleeker version of the judge's robes.
Which makes total sense because Jury's real name is Aaron Victon. He's the son of Judge Victon, who is now better known as the long-standing mayor of Hoshi City
And the man who sentenced Travis's parents to their lifelong prison exile.
Jury has the Power to see through the eyes of any twelve nearby people at once, hence the codename. He's become a C-list hero, thanks mostly to his father's position. Anything Jury has gotten, he has bullied or bribed out of people thanks to his last name, or charmed them with his good looks and social status. If Travis had the advantages Jury had, he'd already be HC's #1 hero and he knows it.
He really is inclined to hate Jury for just about every reason under the sun, but he has to be careful not to give away his real identity. The last thing he wants is for the Victon family to know the connection between Gravitate, Sterling, and Fade identities.
"Well, you're new, aren't you?" Jury says, looking Travis over from head to toe like a piece of meat. "What's your name, stud?"
Travis skin crawls under Jury's gaze and he forces himself not to consider what's running through his mind. Jury is a conventionally attractive blond guy, so he's sure he does quite well for himself. And obviously, Jury likes what he sees.
But Travis is definitely not into guys. And even if he were, he wouldn't touch Jury with a ten-foot pole.
"What? are you gay or something?" Travis says with a smile.
Jury raised his eyebrow, "I wouldn't say that if I'm you..."
"Look I don't care what the hell do you want with me I've got to go," Travis practically growls, walking toward the exit.
"Yeah, about that," Jury says, blocking his path. "You're cute and all but you don't know how things work yet. I just got a call from Rexford himself; the police told him they have a lead on his missing Gravitas. He's a dear friend of my father's–you do know who Mayor Victon is, don't you?"
Jury gets closer to him, way closer than he'd like. His breath smells like stale beer and Travis is pretty sure he can make out the beginnings of a cold sore on his lower lip.
"Tell me what you know now and I'll see it as a serious favor. And I'm the kind of guy you want to owe you, if you get my drift."
Jury puts his hand on Travis's hip, Travis pulls away, trying desperately to keep his cool.
"And if I don't?" Travis asks through clenched teeth.
Jury's slick smile fades.
"Then let's just say that having the mayor of Hoshi City as an enemy isn't a really great thing for any aspiring hero, is it?"
"There's no way in hell I'm backing down from this case, no matter what you threaten me with." Still, Travis does need to find a way to get him off of his tail—he could cause some serious trouble for him if he gets to The Gravitas first.
Without wasting a second, Travis emits a fierce energy pulse. The shock wave takes Jury by surprise, lighting his body up with black energy.
Jury will definitely want to pay him back for this but as he looks at him lying helplessly on the floor, he knows it was totally worth it.
It won't be long before Jury wakes up, so Travis turns his attention back to the Telepoint and his one shot at accessing it….
Sometimes, if he channels his energy Power through electronics in just the right amount, it can jump-start their functions. However, too much Power fries electronics (a talent that comes in handy for some situations but not this one).
Figuring it's worth a shot, he grasps the golden tip at the end of the whip and closes his eyes. He allows a small wisp of energy to flow from his fingertips through the Telepoint, hoping this will coax it into cooperating.
Then out of nowhere, he feels a massive surge built in his forearms.
"No!" Travis shouts out loud, unable to stop a wave of black energy from bursting through his hands.
When the light from his blast clears, he can see the charred remains of the whip in his hand—and the golden Telepoint is completely shorted out. Despite years of training, his Powers can sometimes act…unpredictably. Though this was a rather inopportune time for a surge to flare up.
But before he can even finish forming that thought, he feels his insides turn fluid. The room swirls around him and he staggers backward.
Then he screamed.
When things snap back into focus, he finds that he's in the foyer of a sleek loft. He clapped his hand over his mouth and slid against the nearest wall, hoping no one had heard him. The Telepoint must have activated somehow, despite the energy overload. Perhaps it was because Madame Vice was still nearby? Or perhaps-
"How stupid are you?" Travis hears a deep voice saying, interrupting his thoughts. He peeks his head around the wall of the foyer and sees none other than Smyther sitting on a large, metal throne, staring at something across the room.
He wears tight, black clothes, his bulging muscles covered in veins and bluish scars, the by-product of gene-splicing ultrasteroids. His face is equally scarred, scattered with stab and gunshot wounds. The effect makes him look considerably less than human.
He can't help it—the sight of Smyther sends a chill up his spine.
He tries to ignore this as he spots the large, silver staff in Smyther's hands, covered in gemstones the size of baseballs. That must be it.
That's The Gravitas.
He almost squeals because he did it—he found the damn thing! He starts to scroll through the ways he's going to spend that reward money, knowing that all he needs to do now is get his hands on The Gravitas.
That is, until his eyes settle on the ten armed guards flanking Smyther. Next to them stand three menacing figures he recognizes as Smyther's Splice Generals. One of them is ten feet tall and made of stone (that must be the Security General, Boulder). Another has elongated, plastic fingers ignited by flames (that's the owner of Ace's High Casino, Third Degree). The last has sharp knives growing out of every joint in her body (that must be Fracture, the drug queen).
He swallows hard, a knot of fear balling up in his stomach. He would probably have a hard time taking on just one of these criminals, let alone all of them combined. Suddenly, The Gravitas seems like an afterthought—how is he even going to get out of here alive.
After thinking for a moment he peeks his head again and sees that the guards are already alerted with something. That's when he realizes Smyther and his mob all have their weapons locked on something across the room, a young woman. She wears a bodysuit made of black kevlar, with one thick, red stripe running up the center. Where the bodysuit ends, the red stripe continues to cover her face, showing only her deep, burgundy lips, crystal-blue eyes, and long, dark hair. She looks statuesque, like one of those genetically enhanced Victoria's Secret Angels.
"Sh*t," he thinks, another hero has beaten him to the punch. And she must be even more insane than he is since she stands unarmed, staring down The Splice Circle.
"You went to great lengths to find my base of operations," Smyther says, gesturing toward a large hole in the floor next to the kevlar-girl—a sight that causes him to lose his breath. He realized that he has no idea how far the Telepoint has taken him or how to get back outside.
Travis snaps out of it as Smyther continues: "What are you here for?"
Travis looks back to the kevlar-girl, remembering that Smyther has the Power to elicit a truthful response from anyone he asks a direct question (a very handy gift for a Powered mob boss). That must be why they haven't killed kevlar-girl yet—Smyther wants to know how and why she's here first.
"I'm here," she says softly, barely audible.
"To kill you."
Suddenly, kevlar-girl produces two massive cannon-guns and fires thick surges of laser-energy into the heart of the Circle. Within seconds, four guards and Third Degree are crisped to ash right before his eyes. His stomach turns as he realizes it smells like a summer barbecue.
A deafening roar erupts as the guards return fire. Fracture whips dozens of razor-sharp blades at kevlar-girl while Boulder moves to protect Smyther from the fray. Smyther shouts something at Boulder while waving The Gravitas, but he can't make out the words over the gunshots.
Travis quickly generates a protective energy shield, terrified of catching the brunt of a stray attack. Looking through the blackish energy barrier, his eyes snap back to kevlar-girl as she leaps into the air and does a series of flips, her movements creating a visible trail that blocks the barrage of bullets and knives—she must be able to generate some kind of flash-shield with her movements.
Kevlar-girl then lands and sends off another round of cannon pulses. Travis looks back to Smyther's corner and sees that the last blast took out another half of the guards and left a large, nasty burn on Boulder's back.
Travis can hardly believe his eyes—this woman just killed close to a dozen people in a matter of seconds. An intense rush of dread overtakes him. This is a bloodbath. He didn't sign up for this.
Then he remembers he's a hero. And heroes save lives. Period.
Without second thought, he shot forward in a blur right at kevlar-girl. Before she can see him coming, Travis crashes into her and grabs hold of her waist. Keenly aware of the bullets ricocheting all around him, he canvases the room and spots a small window in the far corner. He has no idea where it will lead he's just thankful the room has an exit at all.
With a thundering crash, he uses kevlar-girl as a battering ram to smash through the glass, ignoring her screams—she doesn't exactly deserve delicate treatment after murdering everyone in sight.
Once out of the window, he finds himself five stories up—the headquarters must be hidden on Shed's top floor. Feeling himself start to fatigue from the effort of carrying kevlar-girl, he pulls above the nearest roof and drops her. She gracefully tumbles onto the roof in a tight ball then flips to her feet.
The moment she gains her footing, she reproduces the massive cannon-guns (which he could have sworn she dropped when he tackled her inside) and trains them directly on him.
Travis begins to swerve and dodge laser blasts as kevlar-girl opens fire at him. She is not playing around—if one of those blasts were to hit him, he'd be burnt to a crisp.
He doesn't have much time to decide what to do next, however, as kevlar-girl chucks something back towards Shed.
A grenade.
Though it looks unlike any grenade he ever seen before, intricately coiled with tech and a cool-blue core.
He turns to fly after the grenade as quickly as possible, knowing it will probably incinerate anyone still left inside the headquarters.
But he's not fast enough—the grenade drifts easily through the broken window. Seconds later, an intense flash of blue heat erupts from inside, followed by a massive explosion that sends flames and debris flying in every direction.
Travis screams as he feels the force of the explosion sends him reeling.
It takes several seconds for his head to stop ringing and his vision to clear. When they do, he finds himself on the street below—the blast sends him a couple of blocks down. That grenade was some seriously advanced technology—where on earth did kevlar-girl get her hands on something like that.
He looks up at Shed and sees people flooding out of the front door as the top half of the building rages with flames. Could it really be that kevlar-girl has done the impossible—did she just take out Smyther and half of The Splice Circle in one attack.
Through the raging fire, he manages to make out kevlar-girl's shadow leaping onto a rooftop…holding The Gravitas! She must have gone back in after the blast and sifted through the wreckage to recover it, no doubt protected by her shield-movements. He doesn't know whether to be horrified or impressed—this girl has some serious moxie.
Still, he will not let her escape, not after she murdered all those people. And especially not with the one thing that's going to launch his career.