String - Friction Interlude II: Comet

Her phone rang out with her morning alarm.

Slowly, Abby flopped out of bed. Like most, the young heroine hated Mondays. The beginning of the week just had an icky feeling that no other day possessed.

Like a zombie, she rose from her bed and rolled out onto the floor. It took a single thought to stop herself from colliding with the carpet, her telekinetic aura orientating her upright. With a yawn, she dispersed her powers and shambled toward the bathroom to begin her morning routine. Abby was halfway through brushing her teeth when there was a knock on her door. Poking her head out of the bathroom, she glared.

“What?” Her tone was garbled from the toothbrush but she received a reply nonetheless.

Seraphim’s voice sounded from the other side. “Meeting in the common room in five. Ionizer called it.”

“Ugh, okay.”

Finishing up, she quickly got dressed for school and headed toward the common room. Tricky was half asleep on the couch, Copycat was shoveling cereal into his mouth and Seer was stirring some tea in the kitchen. Seraphim just paced in the center of the room. Abby rose an eyebrow at the strange behavior before turning and making a beeline for the kitchen.

“Here,” Seer slid a cup over to her. “You’ve had a penchant for Green recently.”

Abby reached up and brushed a few strands of her hair from her eyes. For a moment, she couldn’t tell if he was talking about her highlights or the tea. Precautiously, she picked up the tea, narrowing her eyes at the boy as she took a sip.

“Thanks,” she placed it back down on the counter and reached for the sugar. “So what’s this meeting all about? We’ve been having a lot recently, like, way more than usual. I’m getting sick of all this official crap. I mean, can you believe I was forced to submit an evaluation of my behavior over the weekend? I thought someone else was supposed to do that.”

“They asked you to do it so that you could understand your own shortcomings and get your perspective on how you act,” Seer replied, noting how Abby stilled. “Don’t take offense, we’ve all done them. It’s a fact, none of us are perfect.”

“But some of us are better than others!” Tricky chuckled from the couch. “I just gave myself full marks.”

“That defeats the point of an evaluation,” Copycat chimed in. “Anyway, does anyone know what this meeting is for? I was going to skip school, but I might as well go now since I’m up.”

Everyone turned to Seer and despite being blind, he could feel everyone’s eyes on him.

“You know I’m not allowed to use my powers to pry into official business.”

“It involves us, so what’s the big deal?” Tricky drawled, sitting up. He hung over the edge of the couch and waited eagerly for a reply. “Come on, just bend the rules a little. We won’t tell anyone.”

“At least tell us if we’re in trouble or not,” Seraphim asked, running a hand through her wet hair. “I was already chewed out for skipping the last meeting. I don’t need more bullshit popping up.”

Seer heaved a sigh. “No one is in trouble.”

“Then what? I’ve got school and this is going to make me late, it better be important,” Abby said. She didn’t even bother to hide her frustration. Sparrow would have said something, given a reason at least. Ionizer was still getting used to his new role and so far, he wasn’t adapting as fast as Abby expected.

“It is,” Seer reassured. “It’s… we’re getting a new addition to the team.”

That piqued Abby’s attention.

“Someone new is joining?”

“Finally!” Tricky groaned. “Is it a girl? Please tell me it’s a girl. There’s way too many dudes here.”

“You’re thirteen and have no game,” Abby snorted. “Stick to your trading cards, you won’t look like an idiot.”

“Yeah, sure. Like I’m gonna take advice from the sparkling emo girl,” Tricky laughed. “I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing. Seems to be working.”

Seraphim raised an eyebrow. “Is it really?”

“I have a girlfriend. Asked her out a couple of weeks ago,” Tricky defended. “She was like, totally blushing and all that. You should have seen it, she was all over me. I even made it to first base on the bus last Friday and we have a date this weekend.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “You’re full of shit.”

“You’re just salty cause no guy’s ever asked you out,” Tricky retreated from view by sinking back into the sofa. “I don’t blame them, that whole emo look you got going on is pretty lame.”

Abby seethed. “It’s NOT emo! How many fucking times—”

Her power flared and was about to grab the little bastard but a hand landed on her arm. She looked over to see Jason shaking his head.

“Ren, that wasn’t very nice,” Seraphim intoned. “You should apologize.”

“What? Me? Abby started it,” Ren sneered.

“This whole thing is stupid,” Copycat drawled. “You’re both at fault. Apologize in your own time, just stop being idiots.”

Out of all Rookies, Tricky was by far the most obnoxious in Abby’s opinion. The kid had an ego bigger than both moons put together and no one seemed willing to bring him down a peg. The higher-ups said it was good for his confidence because of his background or something, but Abby called total bullshit on that. They were just too lazy to do anything about it since he hadn’t acted up in public.

“So, who’s the newbie?” Seraphim asked, turning back to Seer. “Anything we should know beforehand?”

His lips thinned as he looked toward the main door.

“Don’t make fun of her appearance.”

Tricky grinned. “Oooh! So it is a girl!”

On cue, the main door buzzed and slid open. Ionizer strode through, clad in his sky-blue armor. Even now, Abby wasn’t sure what she thought of the man. Even before coming to New Elpis, he had a reputation. He made his debut in New York before moving up to New Hampshire. He spent a couple of years there before moving across the U.S. to Utah, then he finally left the ECU branches there to settle in Adelaide over in Australia. Only recently within the last year did he make another jump from there to New Elpis.

He was an exceptional hero with a long list of accolades to his name. Her mom claimed his presence here would be nothing but good for Bayside, but Abby wasn’t so sure. He was a difficult man to get along with. Everything had to be by the book, i’s dotted and t’s crossed. Even before he took up Sparrow’s position, she found herself clashing with the man.

“Good morning, Rookies.”

Not to mention he reminded Abby of every teacher she’d ever had.

“Good Morning.”

“Eh.”

“Hey.”

“Sir.”

Ionizer’s head slowly turned toward Abby, finding her lack of any greeting troublesome. Meeting his stone-faced stare, Abby sighed.

“Whaddya want?”

The senior hero took her disrespect in stride. Instead, he turned back to the gathered junior heroes and cleared his throat.

“There is a new face joining your ranks this morning. I have called his meeting in the hopes that you’ll all introduce yourself and get along with your new colleague,” Ionizer explained. Abby felt her stomach churn. Colleague… She already missed Sparrow’s more casual approach. “That being said, I’d like to introduce you to Prosperity.”

He stepped aside to reveal… an empty doorway.

Tricky sat up and scratched his head while everyone else stared. “Does… she turn invisible or something?”

“Stage fright,” Ionizer replied, sounding unsympathetic and unbothered. “Prosperity. It’s okay. No one is going to judge you.”

Even when he was trying to be reassuring, he still managed to sound intimidating.

Abby watched as the girl stepped out from the side of the door frame. She was hiding and it was obvious as to why. Prosperity was a Morpher, one of the ones that were unfortunate enough to have irreversible features. Apparently, that was a bit of a double-edged sword. Sure had a tendency to be extraordinarily powerful, but they also stood out like a sore thumb.

Prosperity had pointed ears protruding from her neatly brushed black hair. It reminded her of a dog or a canine of some kind. Then, Abby saw the tail, something that was very difficult to miss. Without a doubt, the girl definitely had traits that belonged to a fox.

“...Hi.”

A silence followed her shy greeting that was quickly shattered by Tricky.

“Whoa, that’s pretty cool. I’ve never met a Special Morpher before.”

“The official term is Transfiguration Case Tricky.”

“Eh, who cares what they’re called,” he shrugged. He jumped up and swung his legs over the back of the couch. “Hey! I’m Ren, but you might know me better as Tricky. It’s great to have you here.”

Slowly, Prosperity’s nervousness started to melt away. “Hi Ren. It’s… good to be here, I think.”

“I shouldn’t need to tell you all to be courteous. Prosperity is a newly Awakened, so I’ll leave the details up to her to share should she wish to,” Ionizer said, turning to the girl in question. “If you need anything, you know where to find me.”

Prosperity nodded as he turned and walked out of the room.

“So,” Abby started the moment the door shut. “Can’t imagine you’ve had the best impression with that hardass giving you a tour. Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as you’re probably thinking – well, if you forget about those two over there.”

“Hey!” Ren scowled. Copycat ignored the insult.

“It’s been fine…” Prosperity trailed off. “I wasn’t sure what to expect. A bit intense but so far things don’t seem so bad.”

“Happy to have you with us,” Seraphim smiled. “I’m Nikki. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Abby can also help since she's been here the longest.”

Abby offered a light-hearted wave. Prosperity stared for a few moments before slowly nodding.

“So… you’re Comet?” Prosperity’s smile widened a little as her shoulders tensed. “I’m… ah, this is so embarrassing, but I’m a bit of a fan.”

Abby tilted her head, caught off guard by the admission. She had fans, all heroes did, even one as young and obnoxious as Tricky. It had been one of the biggest hurdles to overcome after becoming a superhero. Thousands of people discussing you online and in public was difficult to get used to, especially when she was one of the few that didn’t have a secret identity.

Her mom didn’t have one, so naturally, Abby followed suit. Whether that had been a mistake or not, Abby still debated to this day. She thought about what it would’ve been like if she had tried to keep it all secret. She doubted her friendship with Lucy, Max, Chris, and Jackson would have lasted as long as it has. Plus, with her mother being as well known as she was, getting powers was something a lot of people expected anyway.

Abby’s mouth curved into a smile. “Do you want an autograph?”

“Aha, um… not really,” Prosperity said. “I wouldn’t want to bother you. It’s just… surreal actually getting to meet you. You and everyone else. I’ve admired heroes for so long that actually getting to be one feels like a dream. It’s just too bad it has to come with this.”

Her tail curled up into her arms and she dug her nails into it like she was trying to rip it off.

“I can’t imagine that’s easy to deal with,” Seer said. “I’m Jason by the way.”

“Hi,” Prosperity said. “Oh! I’m so sorry, how could I forget? I’m Amelia. Everyone’s been introducing themselves – sorry, it’s been hectic for me the last few days. I’ve been… adjusting to my powers.”

“Well, it must be hell to clean,” Copycat chimed in. “I’m Karl, spelt with a ‘K’ if you’re curious.”

“My showers were already long enough. Now, my Dad’s complaining there’s no hot water. I can’t help it!”

“You don’t have to worry about that here,” Nikki said. “Oh, well, that’s assuming you’ll be living here. Most of us do during the week, but we go home on the weekends.”

“Except for me,” Abby waved again. “I’m stuck here. This is home.”

Amelia’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Yep. I was even born here. I’ve lived on site all my life. It’s not exactly safe to stay outside of HQ when you don’t have a secret identity. I can’t even go shopping without being recognized.”

Ren snorted. “Sucks to be you.”

Abby ignored him.

Amelia shifted with uncertainty. “I’m going to be living here until I can figure out how to hide my new additions. I really don’t want my private life to be affected by this and Ionizer said that the ECU has helped people like me before.”

“Yeah the nerds will be able to cook something up. You wouldn’t believe the kind of things they’ve managed to pull off,” Abby said. “Did they give you a room or are you allowed to choose?”

“Um…” Amelia thought for a moment. “They said I was allowed to choose.”

“Ooh! Ooh! Pick the one next to mine!” Ren grinned.

Amelia chuckled nervously as Abby rolled her eyes.

“Come on,” Abby gestured for her to follow. “I suppose it falls for me to give you a tour of the place. I’m willing to bet the higher ups pointed to me as being your chauffeur,” Amelia just chuckled weakly. Abby smiled. “I thought so. Let’s get you a room that’s as far away from Ren’s as possible.”

/------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------/

It was supposed to be just another routine patrol.

Sure, Ionizer had rostered her on at the last second because she and Amelia had gotten relatively close, but it was a Friday. A Friday! Abby wanted to kick back, relax and mess around in her room. Apparently, that wasn’t going to happen and she had to be the good little role model that the ECU wanted.

The route her senior had decided on was unconventional as well. Maybe Ionizer wanted to show Prosperity what it was really like outside of the influence of the ECU headquarters. However, Abby had more important things to worry about right now.

Grabbing a mass of the little drones, Comet crushed them into balls of scrap. Then, her eyes caught the three supers they had been chasing, fleeing out of the bunker.

“H-Hey!” She called out to Ionizer. “They’re getting aw— ah!”

More drones attacked her with reckless abandon. The more that got close, the larger her pile of scrap metal became. It was like there was no end to the swarm of bots and she couldn’t risk thinning her telekinetic aura to try and grab the three escaping villains.

“Forget them!” Ionizer ordered. “Clear the room and prioritize the victims.”

“But–!”

“That’s an order Comet!”

She lashed out in anger, and her sparkling aura slashed through more drones. This was Bayside; you weren’t supposed to let villains like them escape. They could be the ones behind this whole thing.

“Ah! Comet help!”

Comet turned to see Prosperity being dragged away by her legs. She was thrashing, summoning blue fire with her hands and throwing them at the machines latched onto her. They seemed to be dragging her deeper into the bunker and the ones she turned to slag were immediately replaced.

Why aren’t they attacking her?

“I’m coming!”

Comet rapidly expanded her aura to give her some space before soaring over a sea of drones. She landed next to Prosperity and enshrouded the girl in her sparkling aura. Prosperity scrambled to her feet, panting like she had just run a marathon.

“O-Oh my God—”

“What’re you doing!?” Comet took the girl by her shoulders and shook her. “Transform! Use your powers! You’re stronger when you shapeshift!”

“I’m sorry! I panicked.”

“Now’s not the time to panic. Get your shit together girl.”

A wave of electricity carved a trench through the sea of drones around them. The ones in the path of the destruction were disintegrated while the others close by short-circuited and abruptly detonated. It was like watching dominos fall as the explosion set off a chain reaction. Many of the drones tried to flee but ended up consumed by the chaos.

Ionizer jogged up to Comet and she let him through her telekinetic field.

“Are you two alright?” He asked, his voice calm and collected like this whole situation didn’t affect him. How could he remain so stoic despite everything that had happened? “Prosperity?”

“I-I’m fine,” she took a breath. “I just panicked, that’s all.”

“Then you see why I instructed you to remain upstairs? You’re not ready for this,” he said. Her animal ears flattened against her head as her shoulders slumped. Ionizer just shook his head. “You misunderstand. I do not say that to belittle you. There are training programs for this. They are designed to teach you how to act in situations like these. It’s not a mark against you, merely a statement on your inexperience.”

Comet grunted. “Is now really the best time for this? They’re surrounding us again.”

“Are you not capable of keeping them out?” Ionizer asked without a hint of jest. “Your file states your telekinetic prowess is—”

“Yeah-yeah, I can keep them out!” Comet snapped in response. “But I have a limit and I don’t want to see what else they can throw at us. We should try and get out of here.”

“Not a chance. There are trapped civilians. It’s our responsibility to ensure their safety,” Ionizer replied. “Once that’s done, we can see to the three who escaped.”

“They’re probably halfway across the city by now!” Comet sneered. “I can’t believe we just let them slip like that.”

“They are not the priority.”

“Not the priority? Look, I don’t know how things were done where you came from, but here in Bayside, we save the people and fuck up the villains. We’re not supposed to just let them get away!”

Ionizer shook his head. “We weren’t in any position to go after them.”

“I could have!”

“And leave us behind?”

Comet turned to Prosperity, feeling slightly betrayed by her words. Though, the moment she met her gaze, the fire inside of her died. Maybe it was the leftover frustration from having that guy in the black suit mess with her, but nobody got away from her – at least not easily and not without her breaking a few bones.

Even in a situation like this, it made her blood boil. She was supposed to be strong – one of the best.

“No,” Comet resigned. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. Sorry. I just hate it when criminals get off scot free.”

“There’s every chance they’ve been captured. Remember, there are soldiers upstairs. If we can secure this place quickly, perhaps we’ll be able to catch them before they manage to escape,” Ionizer said. “But they cannot be the priority. These people come first. Surely, we all agree on that.”

Comet ignored her pride and nodded. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t argue that point. It was unbecoming of a hero.

“Yeah, we can.”

“Good. Now, let’s clean this place up.”

Having gathered their bearings, they went back to clearing out the remaining drones. Ionizer did most of the heavy lifting, blasting drones that were in groups. Comet immobilized the fleeing drones that tried to scamper around the edges toward Prosperity and crushed them, while the new Rookie transformed and ripped through any drone that came near her.

In minutes, the bunker was clear with scrap metal littering the floor. Most of the destruction had missed the vats but a few weren’t so lucky. They were leaking fluid and several machines were blaring out warnings. A quick glance told Comet that the systems were undergoing critical failures, including life support.

“How do we get these people out?” Prosperity asked.

Ionizer’s lips thinned in thought, but Comet wasn’t the patient type. Those machines were damaged from the fight and she couldn’t just leave them in there. Reaching out with her aura, she shattered the damaged vats and caught the victims before they fell and hurt themselves. Ionizer was quick to move. He climbed the broken tank and reached through her telekinetic aura to remove the more finicky equipment.

“These people need to be examined by specialists,” Ionizer concluded, checking their vitals. “They appear to be stable but there’s no telling what kind of condition they are in,” he reached up to his headpiece and tried to radio for help. “Signal’s blocked. It seems this bunker has a jammer. We need to get back to the surface.”

“Um… about that,” Prosperity pointed back at the entrance. “Guys?”

Comet and Ionizer turned to see a black cloud of darkness wash down into the bunker like water. It rolled forward without resistance and Abby had only a moment to throw up her telekinetic barrier before the darkness consumed them.

“Grim,” Ionizer murmured as they were plunged into darkness. He let out a breath and Comet realized it was one of relief. He hid his fear well. “Good work, Comet. How long do you think you can hold him off?”

Comet felt her hands start sweating as her barrier started slowly receding. She had fought some of Bayside’s most ruthless villains despite only being a Rookie. She had helped capture them too, but Grim? Grim was someone even her mom wouldn’t go near.

“I…”

The words died in her throat. She could barely speak. There was a crushing sense of dread that consumed her. Nobody knew how Grim’s powers worked except that he killed whatever his shadow touched. Now, the only thing between them and the shadow was her slowly shrinking sparkling bubble.

“I don’t know if I can safely move us through this,” Comet said, trying to peer through Grim’s shadow. Unfortunately, it was like staring into an abyss. “Besides, he can just follow us, it’s only a matter of time.”

“How are we getting out?” There was raw panic in Prosperity’s voice. “I–I think I can hear him.”

“I’ll get us out of this,” Ionizer pulled a device from the belt of his costume. He then reached out to the unconscious civilians and their fingers against the screen of it. Once he was done, he offered it to Prosperity and Comet. “A contact of mine has re-engineered this piece of Mechatech for personal use. It’s been cleared by the ECU.”

“What is it?”

“It’s an E.P.S.” He explained. “Emergency Phase Shift.”

Comet had never heard of anything like that before but she wasn’t about to argue. She pressed her finger to the device with Prosperity following her example.

“Deep breath,” Ionizer said.

It was the only warning they got before he activated the device. There was a surge of… something before the world flipped. Comet felt her stomach jump into her mouth before dropping right back into her gut. She lost control of her power as she fell to the ground, collapsing on solid concrete. Lifting her head and resisting the urge to vomit, she managed to see where they ended up.

It was the deployment garage, underneath the ECU Headquarters.

Any questions were immediately put aside as the violent sound of retching came from Prosperity.

“You may experience some major nausea, tinnitus, and blurred vision,” Ionizer casually mentioned as Prosperity’s dinner splattered across the concrete below her. “But I can assure you that there are no long term side effects.”

“We teleported,” Comet gasped, shakily climbing to her feet. Her ears were ringing and her stomach still felt like it was about to rebel against her, but she fought back the urge. “Since when does the ECU have teleportation tech?”

Ionizer was quiet for a moment, his stare unnerving her ever-so-slightly.

“They do not. Not yet,” he looked down at the E.P.S device. “I’ve been working with the higher ups to draft a contract for my contact to supply us. For now, I’d appreciate it if you kept this quiet. They don’t like the attention.”

“What?” Comet shook her head, confused. “Who doesn’t?”

“My contact.”

“And who’s that?”

“Assuming I get that contract, I will be able to tell you.”

“I thought you said that was approved!”

“It is.”

Comet groaned, her stomach rolling again. She didn’t have the strength to argue. “Whatever. I need to… lie down.”

“Ditto,” Prosperity whined, covering her mouth again. “This must be what a hangover is like.”

“Take a moment to gather your bearings. It should pass momentarily,” Ionizer nodded. “I’ll get some personnel to secure the victims—”

Prosperity emptied her stomach again which led to Comet dry heaving.

Ionizer’s lips thinned.

“I’ll call for a cleaner as well.”