I turned to my sister, my eyes wide with disbelief. "Are you seeing this?" The news had been in a loop for about fifteen minutes now like a bell signaling impending doom.
"Same as you, Beaver", she answered, hands running through her hair. She reached for her phone to check on mom and Amir. Thankfully, they were okay. Oyiza had been in the middle of her visit to my place when the news broke.
I hurried towards the nearest window and looked to the sky. The sun was starting to disappear behind dark clouds. Great. The last thing I needed right now was lightning.
"Pop?", I said without turning to my elder sister. "Check your social media. Is this tsunami thing for real?". I half hoped she'd tell me it wasn't as bad as we'd heard. After she scrolled through her social media for a minute, she confirmed my fears. It was coming. "Pop, these are ONES we're talking here. If we fight them, we won't stand much of a chance. They'd crush us", I said, feeling my hands start to quiver. I had started pacing the living room, feeling what was threatening to turn into an annoying migraine.
"You don't think I know that?", she said taking a deep breath and exhaling. "First, they're going to be strong as hell. A lot stronger than us and we don't even know how many they are. Plus, we don't even know what their special abilities are. Heck, we don't even know WHERE they are. Well, what we know right now is that at least one of them can control bodies of water on a massive scale. But the rest...", she stopped midway.
"...we can't fight what we don't know", I completed.
At that moment, Kaycee sped into the house, a gust of wind and blue air following him - his signature, courtesy of his speed ability. He looked like he had thrown his clothes on in a heavy hurry. Normally, we would laugh at how he looked right now, but the Sigma One situation facing us was far from funny.
"It's getting cloudy outside. Are you guys seeing this?", he spoke with a feverish excitement. He turned to the TV and seeing the news still in a loop, cursed under his breath.
"Yeah, we are. We're hoping you can think up a plan of action. You're usually the smartest one in the room", my sister said. "You have ties with some Sigmas in and out of Nigeria, courtesy of the League, don't you?"
"As a matter of fact, I do", he answered. "I'll have to reach out to them. No, I need to go meet with them. We're going to need all the help we can get", he said as he sped over to the dining table and grabbed a pen and paper. "This is how you can reach me while I'm gone. It's a secure GLS line. We have to assume 'The Inevitables' have access to a network of their own and they'll be watching for any movement that looks like they will be defied. Can't have them stopping us before we stop them and we definitely can't ruin the element of surprise", he handed Oyiza the piece of paper with codes written on it. She nodded approvingly and placed it back on the dining table.
"You sound like they're not a new thing to you", I said, eyeing him with suspicion. The GLS had secrets and by virtue of Kaycee being one of their agents, he sometimes kept work secrets from me.
"As a matter of fact, they're not", he replied blankly. "But they were more like rumors or Sigma propaganda - a group of ONES banding together all over the world with the aim to take over the world. You see, those set of sigmas aren't even supposed to like each other. They're too powerful and too egocentric to share space. That's why we, at the Global League of Sigmas, decided to ignore it. But I see now we made a huge mistake."
"Damn", my sister cursed. "Kaycee, do you guys at the league at least have a couple of your own Sigma Ones to call on? Lagos could really use the extra help right now.", my sister half pleaded. The Global League of Sigmas was like the mini confederation of sigma heroes all around the world. Like our very own U.N. However, unlike the U.N, most people didn't know the league existed. They worked from the shadows, 'making the world a better place' one mission at a time. They had formed almost immediately after the first Sigma Catastrophe with the aim to stop or control sigma problems around the world while also trying to help the normal world solve their own problems. But whatever affairs they handled, it was on a need-to-know basis. Only the guys at the top had access to their classified information. Kaycee had joined the League over a year ago and he'd quickly become one of their best and most trusted. That's why he wasn't always with us.
My sister and I had refused to join the GLS because to us, it was like going back to school all over again. And we hated the regimen and discipline of school. We wouldn't be able to do what we wanted or be where we needed to be without someone's say-so. That's why we're the only heroes here in Lagos. Because the rest who should have been here were held back by the League or posted elsewhere, turns out a city like Lagos wasn't that important to the League. It was almost ironic that my sister and I needed THEIR help now. But we had no choice - all of Lagos was at stake. We could hear low hums and the buzz of the civilians starting to panic. Human beings panicking also meant stupid things like looting and robbery. That was one more thing we had to worry about.
"No, Pop", Kaycee shrugged, "we don't have Ones. They don't like to share space, like I told you before. They don't do well under authority and they prefer to be in charge. We're all mostly Twos,Threes and Fours in the League. But if we can all work together, I'm willing to bet even the Ones can't defeat us. I have to go now. I can't phone the Director, I need to go see him. He'll be able to do something and send us heroes who can help us". Kaycee sped over to me and quickly kissed me goodbye before he sped off on his mission, again a gust of blue wind following him.
"Damn", it was my turn to curse this time. "So...what...we're going to wait for the League to send their guys? By the time they send anyone, Lagos would have become the new Atlantis!", I said as I threw my hands up, exasperated.
At that moment, someone came in through the living room door Kaycee had just exited from...more like floated in...flew in? The figure was wearing a black T-shirt and black joggers. Eyes glowing yellow with static energy of the same color appearing here and there on his frame. I could feel the sigma aura of power fill the room before he even said a word. Holy Shit! A Sigma One!!
Immediately, I allowed my own special ability's flow through me. My arms were on fire as I took a battle stance. From the corner of my eye my sister had done the same. Since she had no long range abilities, she was going to depend on her fists and I knew my sister packed quite the punch...literally.
I took a quick but good look at our Sigma opponent. He was over six feet tall with broad shoulders, medium build on a gigantic frame and...large feet...and palms. He looked like he was in his mid twenties. Handsome, but deadly, literally. Before he could open his mouth to say anything, my sister had lunged forward and slugged his jaw. Her punch sounded like a mini sonic boom going off in the living room and some furniture vibrated. Such a force would normally break a human's jaw or snap their neck, but on him, the impact only pushed him a couple of steps to the side with a grimace on his face and an "Ouch" out of his mouth. My sister quickly pounced backwards. Shit. I reported my sister's hit with a fireball straight to his chest. It shifted him a couple of steps backwards and he grunted a bit, holding the wall for support. Could Fire harm a Sigma One? He was starting to look annoyed. I summoned another fireball and...he was gone. In confusion I looked at my sister and I saw her eyes go wide in horror...he had somehow moved so fast we didn't see and he was behind me. Before I could turn my head, I found myself being lifted off the ground in a chokehold and being slammed into the wall. The living room shook with the impact of that hit. My apartment! He went for me because of my long range attack ability, knowing my sister wouldn't be able to attack him from the other side of the living room. Well, he wasn't going to be ready for what came next. I summoned my phasing ability and...nothing happened. I tried again and nothing. Then I panicked and started to kick and squirm, my survival instincts kicking in. This monster had somehow negated my defense ability with that static energy of his. He smirked at me when he realised I must have been out of tricks.
"Let her go and face me like a man, bastard!", my sister yelled. I could see the fear in her eyes though. A Sigma One was more than we could handle. Just one. How could we fight multiple Ones? I was beginning to lose all hope when he spoke.
"You're The Sisters, aren't you?", he said calmly, as if he wasn't lifting my weight against a wall... with one arm. How strong was this creep?
"Yes, we are and if you know what's good for you, you'll drop my sister and piss off before we kill you", Oyiza threatened even though she sounded like she wasn't convinced by her own words. The boy cocked his head, went silent for a second and burst out laughing.
"If I wanted it, I think you'd be dead already. You're strong, but not that strong. I'm not gonna hurt you. I don't even want to fight you.", he said to my sister, his laugh subsiding. Then he turned to me, "You... hothead. I'm going to drop you now. Please, for your sake, don't try anything funny?", he said to me, almost in a plea. He didn't want to hurt us. So what exactly did he want? Well I guess we were about to find out whether we liked it or not. I slowly nodded, letting him know I would comply. He dropped me gently and stepped away from me swiftly.
"What the hell do you want, creep?", I managed to blurt out. Sigma Ones were a very dangerous specie. Having one standing right in front of me was terrifying but I managed to hide it and stay calm. My sister carefully came to my side and pulled me away while her eyes were warily trained on him. He looked at us and I swear I saw amusement in his eyes.
"I want your help", he blankly said. "Or... I'd like to help you. Lagos is in danger because of these guys who call themselves 'The Inevitables'. Personally, I don't know how to be a hero and do what you guys do. I don't even think it's for me. But, under the current circumstances, I'd like to work with you to make sure this city doesn't meet a watery end. I want to keep my family safe. I want to keep my home safe. Just as I'm sure you would like to do the same. Don't worry, when we kill these guys, I'll get out of your hair. I go back to my quiet life and you go back to your hero life".
My sister and I were slack-jawed at what we were hearing. A Sigma One had just almost literally fallen on our laps, asking to team up with us. I was first to recover. So I answered him.
"We don't kill. We're going to bring them to justice and the right authorities will handle them", I said. To that, he gave off another hearty laughter that tasted like sarcasm on my tongue. I was already finding him very annoying.
He 'sped' over to our dining table, helped himself to a toothpick and sped back to the spot he stood before. It wasn't exactly speeding. More like static-energy-short-burst-teleportation. Almost too fast for our eyes to follow. And it obviously wasn't a special ability. He just...did it. I immediately started to pray silently that The Inevitables didn't have these kind of abilities he was showing off. He slumped down on one of our chairs still laughing.
"Ridiculous", he said as he put the toothpick in the side of his mouth. "They'll just keep coming back. Killing them stops them once and for all. But fine, I won't argue. As long as we save Lagos and they leave us alone, we will do it your way. I'm not the hero, you both are", he said in a resigned fashion, shrugging his shoulders.
My sister shot me a look like 'if he's here to help, let's give him a chance?'. In reply, I shrugged my shoulders as if to say, 'okay, what's the worst that can happen?'. We took a seat in a way we were facing him squarely so as to watch him carefully. It was like a dream. A Sigma One was here...and he was offering help...for free. For the first time since the news of 'The Inevitables', I had hope we could save our city. But I was curious...
"How did you find us?", I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Oh...", he rolled his eyes and smirked. "You're kinda popular. I saw clips of the fight you had over the Berger territory with those other Sigmas. I figured, the way you girls stood up for this area, it wasn't just a hero thing, it was personal. So I've been zooming up and down Berger and it's environs for the past fifteen minutes or so, scanning for any Sigma movements. Luckily, I saw someone with a blue aura speeding into this general area and I followed him here. I wasn't super sure, so I waited till he was gone before I came in. I need The Sisters - I'm not exactly willing to trust anyone else and it's not like this city is known for its endless supply of heroes", he added wryly.
We all fell silent for a few seconds, the news still on, in the same loop of imminent doom.
"So...what's the plan?", he said as he wiggled his feet after he stretched them. When he got no response from us, he sighed and added, "Come on. We're running out of time. We need a plan...and quickly".