Kyle toyed around with the strange Mental-based tech in his hand. It was some sort of ray gun Metal Ronin had planned to attach to a suit but never got around to finishing it.
All Mental-based Supers had a lab or some sort of place where they would make all their gadgets. For the hero, Metal Ronin, it had been in the junkyard, but since the Beast attack, everything had been moved into one of the wings of the manor they stayed in, which served as the Sub Enforcer's base.
The area looked almost like an old garage. Dozens of shelves lined the wall, all containing Metal Ronin's half-built projects, and in the center were two large vans that had been gutted and were still being built.
Kyle flipped the strange ray gun in his hand, toying with the trigger. It had no energy and wouldn't fire, but he took a moment to pretend like it was working. He aimed it at the wall and squinted. "Pow. Pow. Pew. Gun noise-"
"What are you doing?" Rowan asked in a flat tone.
Kyle let out a loud yelp and dropped the device. He spun around and found his bodyguard staring at him with an unamused look. Rowan was in the doorway to the garage dressed in a wielding outfit and holding a blow torch. Today, Myth, Oxide, and Drake were patrolling, so both Wasp Nest and Metal Ronin were the only Sub Enforcer members at the base with whom Kyle had to hang out today. Despite that, though, he had basically avoided both of them.
"Relax. I was just looking around." Kyle said sheepishly.
Rowan stared at his friend with a blank look. "Really?" The superhero walked forward and bent down, picking up the broken gun. "Because it looks like you were messing with some dangerous stuff."
"Dangerous stuff? None of this crap even works."
"That's why you shouldn't mess with it." Rowan huffed. "It isn't stabilized. This thing here could have blown your hand off." Rowan jingled the gun in front of his friend's face. "Why do you think I scrapped it? If it worked, Oppenheimer would be ready to use it out in the field."
"Oppenheimer?" That was when Kyle noticed his friend wasn't alone. Standing behind Rowan, Oppenheimer, the dog walked in. The black puppy looked around before finally settling down near the corner. "You're still trying to build a dog mech suit for him?" Kyle asked, a little amused.
"Damn straight, I am." Rowan tossed the useless gun onto a shelf and gave a smirk. "When I finally figure it out, he and I will be ready to kick serious villain ass."
"How haven't you figured it out? I mean, you already are able to build a suit for yourself; shouldn't you be able to make one for your dog?" Kyle questioned.
"I mean, yeah, I could, but what use would I get out of it? The suit would run out of battery way too fast." Rowan sighed. "It's the one thing I haven't been able to figure out yet. I don't know how Boy Genius does it."
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing." Rowan shook his head. "It's a Mental-based thing. I actually came in here to work on something, so you need to leave." Rowan looked around his lab, searching for the right object, but a frown came onto his face. "That's weird." He moved over to a crowded shelf filled with dozens of small devices shaped like capsules. He knocked several of them off as he searched through the pile but was unable to find the right one.
"What are you looking for?"
"There should be one listed as HV." Rowan's frown grew. "I was still working on it."
"HV?" Both boys jumped a bit when they heard the other voice. They turned and found that they weren't alone anymore. Kenny seemingly just got out of the shower, dripping wet, with only a towel covering him. He held it up with one hand and leaned on the door. "Are you talking about that dumb-looking van?"
"It wasn't dumb!" Rowan said, offended.
"It was kind of dumb..." Kyle trailed off.
Rowan let out another huff and folded his arms. "Whatever. Where the hell is it?"
Kenny gave a lazy shrug. "Myth gave that thing away."
"What!"
"Yeah." Kenny rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. "He even put the last bit of the food we had in it without telling us. I get Cinder was a teammate, but still. That kind of sucks, you know-"
"Why would he give it away!" Rowan yelled.
"Cause it was done?"
"It wasn't done!"
"It wasn't? It worked, though, right?"
Rowan clenched his teeth and let out a deep sigh. "Idiots. All of you don't understand how Mental tech works at all, do you?"
Kyle gave a sheepish shrug. "I mean, you guys make impossible to understand tech? What do you expect?"
Rowan walked over to one of the gutted vans and used a wrench to bash into the metal, heavily denting it. The sound caused the other two boys to wince, and the dog whined and ran out of the room. "Why do you think we don't have more of those vans for the people?" Rowan asked sarcastically. "It's because I still haven't figured out how to get them to work right." He grabbed one of the capsules that rested on his desk and clicked it, tossing it at the wall.
Kyle and Kenny dropped to the floor as the thing exploded, and a third van appeared, knocking dozens of shelves over. This van had a bright white paint job on it, and the image of Snowdawn resided on both doors. It looked finished, and just like the Cinder Van, if one were to open it, they'd find an entire mini-reality inside.
"I started building these vans around the time Wish was defeated," Rowan admitted. "I got the idea after studying some old junk I found out in the Wastelands. I have a couple of them, and in a way, I guess you can say that they work. They can drive, have built-in weapons, and do other such things. Each one also has a few rooms."
"So then what's the issue?" Kyle questioned. "Can't you just give these to the people that are still in the city? It'd be a whole lot better than the tents they have to stay in."
"No. It wouldn't." Rowan shook his head. "You should know this already. I've mentioned it before, but it's the same reason Avalon or Boy Genius don't make Super tech for the Hero Branch to use."
"That battery thing, right?" Kenny stated. "Tech made by you guys isn't powered by electricity or anything like that. Instead, your kind gives off a type of energy source, which keeps the things powered. If something stays away from you for too long, then it'll lose its power and need to be recharged."
"That's right." Rowan nodded. "I could make a big ass gun and give it to someone, but it would have only a few shots before it died. In my case, anything I make has a battery life of two hours, and then it must be near me for two hours to recharge. With these vans, I'd have to sit inside of them for two hours straight to give them the juice they need. Since I can only be in one place at a time, I can't charge multiple suits or vans. Boy Genius sort of has a workaround for this. His gear can last for weeks without needing to be recharged, but even he still has to recharge all his stuff manually. It's why he sticks so close to his prison. Sometimes, he'll make what he calls burner gear for the Hero Branch. He did this for a few members during the Beast fight. This is gear that is meant to be used once or twice and then scrapped. As far as I know, the only piece of tech that can power itself is Beta. Boy Genius hasn't been able to make anything like that again since Beta's creation."
"What about the costumes, though?" Kyle asked. "Doesn't he make all your guy's clothing and stuff like that?"
"Those are just fabrics." Kenny snorted. "No tech involved. And the stuff that does have tech, while being put in place by Boy Genius, isn't actually Mental-based tech. It's all normal tech that any normal person could make; it's just installed and created through Mental-tech, making it better. It's sort of like building a normal car, but one that is built by an advanced robot. It'll do better than normal cars despite not being Super tech, so it also doesn't have the breaking down issue. Of course, that also means it can't do anything special either, other than be well made."
Kyle nodded slowly. "Okay. I think I get it. So you're annoyed that Myth gave your thing away because it'll depower, and you haven't been able to fix that issue? Is that right, Rowan?"
"No." Rowan shook his head again. "If that was the case, we could still get some use out of these vans. After all, even if they don't have power, they'd be able to be used as a place to store people. Sadly, though, the situation is a lot worse than that. Remember how I said a lot of this crap is unstable?"
"Yeah," Kyle said, suddenly feeling very uneasy.
"That's the real reason we don't give gear like this to people unless it is made to be thrown away after one use. Even if we can recharge them, it's way too dangerous. Because once they do run out of juice, the power that allowed them to function stops working. And once that power wears off, boom!" Rowan clasped his hands together, clapping as loudly as he could. "The entire thing can go up in smoke. All it takes is one guy forgetting about it or some other slip-up, and an uncharged high-tech weapon falls apart, unleashing all that pent-up energy."
Kenny's face paled a bit at that. "Wait. Are you saying that all these vans are basically bombs?"
"Worse than that," Rowan said sternly. "Myth gave a bomb away as a gift because he couldn't be bothered to ask me why I stopped working on these damn things."
Kyle nervously folded his arms. "I don't suppose any of us has the number to get in contact with Hope or her family?" Hope still didn't have a phone, and he didn't manage to get Mr. Lauren's number. An awkward silence filled the room as the two superheroes shifted. "Well... Shit."
"It's fine." Rowan finally said while the two other boys processed the fact that they were in a room with two other bombs shaped like vans.
"What do you mean it's fine?" Kenny hissed out. "You just told us it was a bomb!"
"It is, but that's only if it goes off."
"What the hell does that mean? All bombs are still bombs before they explode, you know!"
Rowan slapped at the van next to him once more. "Look, I might not have figured out a way to stop these bad boys from losing power and exploding, but I did put some safety nets in place to ensure they wouldn't just randomly go off."
Kyle let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, so they won't have to worry about their ride randomly exploding on them?"
"Exactly." Rowan nodded. "There is something in the van that warns you if the power is running low, and it should let them know they need to get out of the van in case it does explode while the van waits for a Mental-based user to power it."
"Wait, what do you mean while the van waits? I thought only you could power the van since it is your tech?" Kenny questioned.
"To an extent, that is true; only I can power my own tech, but as I said earlier, I was able to take tech that wasn't my own and make it mine. The same thing could be done by other heroes who have Mental-based powers." Rowan explained. "In Oleander, we don't have enough heroes with those kinds of powers to make it work, but if you were to leave the city, you could maybe find another hero to fix up the van. If someone with Mental-based powers works on tech made by another Super, they can modify it in their own way, making it their tech. And since it is their tech, it can be recharged by them. I programmed the van to send a distress signal out whenever it runs low on battery, just in case. So, either they'll be warned it's about to explode, or they will be picked up by some other hero with tech powers who can hopefully fix up the van or warn them of the dangers."
"When you say it sends out a signal, couldn't that cause some bad guys to come after them?" Kyle asked nervously.
"Not a chance." Rowan snorted. "I programmed the signals to only go out to heroes who I know. People like the Pallet Boys, Tech Horse, or even Boy Genius."
"Wait, the Pallet Boys?" Kenny frowned. "Rowan, you know those guys are dead right?"
"Yeah, but they were already in the system and I was to lazy to take them out so-"
"Rowan! You know that a bunch of bad guys stole all the Pallet Boy's gear, right? What happens when the signal gets sent out, and some evil guy sees it?"
Rowan went silent. He didn't say anything for several seconds. Finally, though, he cleared his throat. "Yeah, so this is sort of why I didn't want the vans to be handed out yet..."
"Rowan!"
***
"I have to admit, this van is a little cool, I guess." Jane hummed.
"And it's so safe!" Alexander slapped the dashboard and gave a grin. "You got some real neat friends, Hope!"
"I wouldn't really say Metal Ronin and I are friends," Hope said in a slightly bitter tone. She still remembered that time the boy helped train her, and he used all those drones to zap her butt. Some things were just unforgivable.
"You'll need to tell us all about them sometime." Jane smiled and placed her hand over her daughters. "You hardly even told me about all the superheroes you know. They all seem so interesting."
"That's just most heroes, I think." Hope shrugged. So far, she hadn't met a sane or normal hero.
Hope took her red backpack off and placed it next to her in the backseat. Kevin still hadn't talked or said anything since the ride began. She was starting to get a little worried. Maybe he went to sleep or something? Or maybe he was just ignoring her? She really didn't know. As soon as she took the backpack off, the silver jacket she wore twitched and changed. It formed into a long scarf that wrapped itself around her neck.
She ran her fingers through it. Despite looking like normal clothing, it still felt like metal. It also still had its weight to it, though the Pod was always fairly light and could be lifted by normal humans, so thanks to her enhanced strength, she had nothing to worry about. She still had on her normal clothes beneath the jacket. During the ride, she had changed into a simple black T-shirt that showed off Pretty Face, as well as a pair of blue jeans.
They hadn't even been on the ocean for an hour, yet they were nearing their destination. The ride was fairly smooth; her dad seemed to know what he was doing and drove on the surface of the water like a pro. She took a moment to look out the window and stare out at Oleander. It remained in the distance and was slowly but surely getting smaller and smaller as they approached Lillian. They had to take the long way around since they left from Oleander's beach.
Across the sea, in the distance, the ice island that made up Watch Dog's home base still resided. Sky mentioned that Duplcity and Roulette had made it out of the Beast fight alive. Sadly, they were the only two from their team of four. She wondered briefly if they were still on that island. They hadn't made a move in the city since everything went down. They must have been lonely.
It reminded her a bit of Armin, which only caused the pain in her chest to grow.
That pain just motivated her more though. She was determined to reach Mr. Larison and figure out some way to make things return back to how they used to be.
"So what exactly is the plan?" Alexander called back. "You'll have to be a bit patient with us, Hope. Your mom and I are total noobs when it comes to this job."
Hope folded her arms and turned her attention back to what was happening in front of her. They were close to the beach that rested around Lillian. Lillian really was like a mirror image to Oleander in some ways. "The end goal is Rose City; that way, I can speak to Mr. Larison, but there are a few other places I'd like to stop first."
"Like Lillian?" Jane asked.
"Yeah." Hope nodded. "Rose is far away and sort of hard to get into. I'll need help, so there is another city I'd like to stop by first. I also wanted to check up on the person that was there. For now, though, I want to stop by Lillian and look for clues."
"Clues?" Alexander raised an eyebrow and gave a sly grin. "What are you, some sort of detective?"
"I will be today, I guess." Hope gave a sheepish giggle before growing serious. "Sky told me her sister left this city and joined Battery. I'd like to stop by their house. Maybe there are clues or something. I doubt I'll find anything, but it's better to be safe than sorry. There's still a lot I don't really understand right now."
"This is getting a little exciting," Jane muttered. "I never thought we'd be doing anything like this as a family."
"Me neither." Alexander gripped the wheel tighter. "I'm glad though. That we're all together, I mean. No more being apart."
Hope felt a faint smile come onto her face. "Yeah."
They finally reached Lillian beach. Unlike Oleander, it wasn't filled with massive piles of trash. In fact, in a way, she was reminded of Hell Land. The beach was large, and hundreds of people were on it, seemingly having a fun time. Some people were playing volleyball, others were swimming out in the ocean, and kids were building sandcastles. It was the total reverse of Oleander. Or at least it appeared that way.
Before they even fully arrived, everyone on the beach seemed to freeze and stare at them. It was certainly a weird sight... Some people even pulled out their phones and began to take pictures, no doubt noticing the Cinder image that was on both sides.
Hope felt her cheeks flush a bit. It was kind of embarrassing. She kept forgetting that her Cinder persona was a tad famous now.
The van had heavily tinted windows that were made in a way that allowed them to see the outside world perfectly but blocked anyone from seeing the inside. Their van came out of the ocean and drove up onto the beach. Alexander awkwardly kept going forward, making sure to move out of the way of anyone who was slack-jawed and frozen in place by what they saw. It wasn't every day you saw something like this after all.
Soon enough, though, they arrived near a large ramp that allowed cars on the beach to drive up onto the road. "It feels weird getting so many looks." Jane shuddered a bit. "Is this how you normally feel, Hope?"
"Yep," Hope said flatly. "You get used to the judging eyes eventually."
She had been to Lillian once, though she never got to see much of the city. That had been back before the Beast attack, and back then, she noticed Lillian was pretty similar to Oleander. Both were massive cities with rich parts and hundreds of manors. The main difference, though, was that Lillian was a lot more pact-in and enclosed. Oleander was wide and massive with three different zones, but Lillian only had massive skyscrapers that covered every corner and thin roads and sidewalks. You were either in the rich part of the city or the super-rich part of the city. Even before the Beast, it felt a bit claustrophobic to move around.
After the Beast attack, things grew so much worse.
Traffic was full everywhere. Every single road had hundreds of cars on them. At each street, two different Hero Branch trucks resided, and Hero Branch soldiers were doing their best to direct everything. The sidewalk was filled with thousands of different people all screaming about different things.
Many of these people likely used to live in Oleander. They had lost their homes during the Beast attack and had been forced to flee to Lillian. Unfortunately, Lillian didn't have enough homes for an entire second city's worth of people. Of course, all the rich and important people in Oleander, who had been flown to Lillian by helicopters, were given the finest places to stay, but the rest of the people were out of jobs and homes, and with all the shelters having become full, they were left with no other option but to live on the streets. This even started to affect the people of Lillian.
None of the other cities were willing to offer any help either. This was because they were going through their own crisis. Because of what Battery pulled, every city no longer had any Enforcers and was filled with wandering Giants that took up more space. Lillian had four massive Giants, each one dressed in thick-looking Knight armor. They stood taller than any skyscraper and took up a full block, turning the already claustrophobic city in on itself more.
Battery's method might have been working for some places, but this was not one of them.
Even though Lillian hadn't been attacked by the Beast, it was still feeling the effects of the Calamity from space. So great was that creature's terror.
"What now?" Alexander asked quietly. "I can't get onto the main road."
Due to the massive number of people, they were stuck on the ramp and unable to cross the sidewalk. Even if they were somehow able to get past all of that, though, the road was still totally clogged. It basically made driving impossible.
"I'll handle it." Hope stated.
"What are you going to do?" Jane asked, looking back at her daughter.
Hope picked Kevin up and gave a small grin. "Do what I do best. Use obscene strength to force the outcome I want to happen."
"Huh?"
Hope shook the backpack. "Alright. No more silent treatment. I need a costume. Come on, Baggy." Silence filled the van. "Please..."
"...I want a better name..." Kevin's voice came out from the bottom of the bag, though no face appeared on it.
"It does talk!" Jane and Alexander stared with wide eyes as the red backpack shook.
"What's wrong with Baggy?"
"It's stupid, and I want a cooler name!" Kevin hissed.
Hope rubbed her chin. "Okay. I get it; you don't like the backpack thing. What if we call you Packy, as in-"
"No! No! No!" Kevin began to bubble up and change. Red tendrils grew off of him as he wrapped around Hope. "I've already decided."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah." Hope felt her suit begin to reform around herself as Kevin turned into her hero outfit. The scarf around her twitched and also began to change as her outfit wove itself together, strand by strand. "I've decided. If I have to go by some stupid ass hero name, then from now on, I am going to be called Shift!"
The costume finished, as both Kevin and the scarf worked together. It sort of looked like the first design he had created out of himself, but now it had some silver in it. It was still mostly red and covered her body from the neck down. Silver lines ran through it, giving it an outline, and the butterfly symbol was also made of silver. She thought about asking for it to be changed since she really didn't want a connection to Full Monarch, but she didn't really know what else she could put there. A half mask covered her upper face, and instead of a helmet, she had a hood, which she could pull on and off at will.
Once again, she was Cinder. The hero she dreamed of being.
"Whoa." Alexander's eyes were wide as he stared at his daughter.
"That's a new one." Jane was also taken aback. "That makes costume number three, I guess."
Cinder didn't say anything as she stood up and began to head down the hallway that was within the van. "Where are you going?" Her father called out.
"Outside."
She made it to the door and stepped out of the van. Instantly, she could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes on her. Most of the angry mob stopped when the weird van pulled up, and they stared as a hero had stepped out of it. She was a bit grateful that fake Cinder had made so many drastic changes, like ditching the helmet and staying in the golden-haired form, so no one instantly knew what they were looking at. Her costume had changed quite a bit after all. Before any of them could decide to film her or say anything to her, she moved into action.
Cinder crouched down and placed her hands on the bottom of the van. "Help me out B- I mean Shift."
Kevin just grunted, and she felt the suit twist a bit as his strength became added to her own. With a slight smirk, she pulled up and lifted the van above her head. Many of the people in the crowd let out loud yells, and some stumbled back. At the end of the block, the Hero Branch officers noticed her and began to yell something out into a radio and head her way.
She stuck her tongue out at them and shifted the van until it was fully above her head. She kept a tight grip on it and then jumped up, using Shift's strength combined with her own to do a super hop. She came down hard, landing directly behind the Hero Branch truck. They screamed at her, and one even tried to grab her, but she jumped again, going even further and landing out of the block.
Traffic was still overflowing no matter where she went, and the sidewalk was extremely crowded, but people moved out of the way as they jumped through it, going further and further in the direction of where she remembered Sky's house being.
It made her wonder who was protecting Lillian City. After all, Ocean Empress was dead, as was most of Team Reservoir. Lillian also lacked a Sub Enforcers team due to how crowded and enclosed it was. Ocean Empress had always managed without one, so the Hero Branch decided to use the funding for a Sub Enforcers elsewhere.
Cinder hoped crime was remaining in check.
Inside the van, Jane held onto something as the ride kept rocking back and forth. She felt herself leave the seat a bit as her daughter jumped up, going high into the air, before they suddenly came back down in a harsh landing. Then, it would happen all over again as Cinder blasted herself forward.
"H- How the hell are you remaining so calm?" Jane shot her husband a dirty look as her face turned a little green, and she resisted the urge to throw up.
Alexander gave a hearty laugh and clapped his wife on the back. "I was a fisherman, you know. This is nothing compared to the trashy boat rides I went on. Keep going, Hope! Or, I guess I should call you Cinder!"
Back outside, Cinder's lips twitched slightly into a grin as she kept up her pace, carrying the van over her head. Kevin spoke into her ear as she ran, asking a question. "So you said you wanted to check out your girlfriend's house? Did she give you permission?"
"Not sure if I'd really call her my girlfriend, and no, I sort of forgot to tell Sky I was doing this. Don't worry, though; what she doesn't know won't hurt her." Cinder said sheepishly.
"Huh. Guess lesbians lie to each other like straight couples."
"Huh?"
"Nothing."
Slowly, Cinder came to a stop once she began to near her destination. The streets finally began to open up more. While the main half of Lillian was flooded with people, the super-rich part was being well kept. It was still crowded, but she didn't have to dodge in and out of the crowd's mid-jump. Instead, she slowed herself down to a brisk walk, though she still carried the massive van above her head since it was just easier than putting it down.
She still remembered when she first went to Sky's house. It had been for a girl's night, one that was seemingly started at random for no reason. They had been so happy and cheerful back then. None of them knew the horrors that lurked on the horizon. Nor were they ready for all the loss that awaited them.
Kevin let out a low whistle when he saw the different manors. They were massive, each one with its own metal fence. Most of Lillian was made up of towers, but this part. The rich wanted you to know they were rich, showing off their massive lawns.
When they finally did arrive at Ocean Empress's manor, Cinder came to a sudden stop, and she felt a pang of mild anger. It stood out like a sore thumb, especially compared to how nice all the other houses looked. River Sini's home was in ruins.
The fence had been completely torn down, and most of the yard was destroyed. Heavy machinery covered every square inch of the land, and several men in construction outfits walked. There were a bunch of Hero Branch guards as well. The manor itself was mostly torn down. They weren't just repurposing the place. If you wanted to do that, you could have still left the manor and just made some changes. This was a complete overhaul, every square inch being changed.
There was a new section in the back of the yard that was being turned into a pool, and what looked like a makeshift sound stage filled with musical equipment was also being put up. There had been a statue of River Sini's late husband, the father of Poseidon, but it was gone now. Instead, a new statue of Pretty Face was put up.
She had heard he took over the city once Ocean Empress died; he was now a member of the Enforcers, but it seemed like he was abusing his power by getting rid of everything Ocean Empress had.
The place Lily and Sky grew up at was just gone. How would they react when they learned this?
She had arrived too late to do anything about it. The damage was already done.
She suddenly felt really ticked off. It was during this mood that she felt something hit her in the back of the leg.
It happened suddenly and without warning. One moment, she was standing, and then the next, something wrapped itself around her ankle and pulled on her hard. She quickly went from being ticked off to angry as she tripped and dropped the van with her parents in it. Luckily, Shift thought fast, several tendrils growing out of the back of the costume, which wrapped around the van, and managed to place it down gently.
Many of the men in the yard all stopped what they were doing and stared when they heard the noise. "Nice save, Shift." Cinder spoke through gritted teeth. Whatever had grabbed her attempted to tug her further back, but she fought through it and pulled her leg up. She looked down and found several clumps of golden thread wrapped around her leg. She grabbed at them and tore them off at her, but not even a second later, more golden lines blasted toward her from a nearby roof. She rolled out of the way just in time as they splattered against the ground next to the van. "Why the hell are you attacking me?"
"Why are you running away from the law!" A loud voice called out. A golden figure dropped to the ground, landing before her in a crouched position. They wore a golden costume that had the image of a spider across it, and a mask covered their face. Both their legs were gone, replaced with wooden limbs that now supported them, and they were missing an arm now after their right arm was blown off during the battle with the Beast. Despite that, there was no mistake about who this was. "You've been causing a ruckus, and the Hero Branch ordered I bring you in. Who even are you?"
Golden Weaver, a former member of the original Enforcers, stood before her. In other words, one of the heroes who fought alongside Full Monarch.
Alexander's eyes went wide as he stared out the window at his favorite hero. "Holy crap! I need his autograph!"