[FREE | Reading Sample] TS - Chapter 3 - Vigilante

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------------------- Start of Pre-Chapter Author Note (Patreon-only) -------------------
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Hello everyone, LunaWolve here!

We're back with more Tabula Smaragdina today!

I had almost finished this chapter on Sunday already and wanted to finish it today after writing ND, but got hit with the Monday-blues omega-Brainfog again, so I couldn't actually write anything until around 8pm (after a full day of work, a nap and dinner to clear the brainfog >.<).

This is the penultimate chapter for this series of Reading Samples on TS, meaning that the next chapter will wrap up this initial introductory arc!

Today's chapter is a little over 8.6k Words long, so about two-and-a-half as long as a normal TAS/ND chapter! MASSIVE reading, yay!

Enjoy, and don't forget to provide feedback in the discord channel! (#other-novels -> Thread: "Put feedback for TAS in here")

I'm particularly looking for feedback on whether you are interested in a continuation based off of this initial Reading Sample, and specifically what parts got you really interested (if at all).

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To hopefully pre-empt some questions that might come up:

No, this will not replace TAS.

No, this will not replace ND.

No, it will not be a third novel alongside the other two anytime soon, as I'm maxed-out on energy/time capacity for writing with those.

Yes, it is something I'm considering as a third novel for the future, hence the Reading Sample.

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Now, with all that out of the way, I once again ask that you go into this with an open mind and just take it for what it is. And remember to provide targeted feedback on the things you like/dislike!

Enjoy!

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I'm looking forward to hearing your first impressions and opinions on this chapter. \o/

I hope you will enjoy it!

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-------------------- End of Pre-Chapter Author Note (Patreon-only) ------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the GoogleDoc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r4z2z7Vkbt0HYEXOobrLlvO7ijnhwlRi0-BwDeBZI5U/edit?usp=sharing

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Chapter 3 - Vigilante

Diary Entry:

“[…] Anyways… I’m going to write down the list of types now, so future Sadie has them saved locally. I know, I’m such a sweetheart. 

Past-you is so wonderful, isn’t she…? <3

Search for ‘Hero Types’ or ‘Types Legal’ in your laptop notes, future Sadie, if you want the legal side from today’s lecture. I only managed to type out the legal requirements while the Professor was rushing us through everything, so you’ll need this list too if you actually want it all to make sense.

>>> Hero Types <<<

- - Direct Combat Roles - - 

- Tank: Extreme defensive capabilities. Mostly attracts Vyre attention and absorbs or deflects their attacks to give other Heroes time to deal with them.

- Striker: Extreme single-target capabilities. Their goal is to kill Vyre as quickly and efficiently as possible, as well as destroy weak points on Kaiju with coordinated attacks.

- Brawler: Middle-ground of Tank and Striker. Can fill both roles adequately, but does neither better than the specialized version.

- Nuke: Area-destruction specialists. Primarily used to wipe out Vyre swarms. Use is rare, extremely regulated, and politically sensitive due to collateral damage.

- Skirmisher: Anti-personnel “devils”. Villain-hunters and the ones sent against the Corrupted. Generally bad for anti-Vyre stuff though.

- Suppressor: Also sometimes confused for Controllers. Their job is to deny space in small-scale combat, restrict Vyre movement, and create safe zones for allies through sustained pressure or environmental control.

- - Support Roles - - 

- Healer: The most important Hero-type due to general attrition. They stabilize, improve recovery or straight up directly fix wounded allies. 

- Buffer: The Bards among the Power types. They amplify allied Heroes’ physical, mental, or Power-based performance beyond their normal limits.

- Debuffer: The Anti-Bard Triss just informed me, these are also just Bards, but specialised in a different thing—I really have to start theorycrafting more characters... Anyway. They reduce Vyre effectiveness through status effects such as slow, confusion, corrosion, or Power disruption.

- Cleaner: The unsung, true heroes of the world! They are the guys who remove biological or chemical contamination, Vyre corpses and residue, and general post-battle dangers to prevent unnecessary civilian and Hero casualties. 

- - Intelligence Roles - - 

- Controller: Sometimes confused for Suppressors. They manipulate terrain, positioning, movement, or environmental factors to dictate the flow of combat in large-scale engagements. Generally requires political okay, due to high chance of collateral.

- Spotter: They’re the ones spotting Kaiju and Vyre Incursions, mostly. They identify threats, mark priority targets, and provide real-time intelligence to Strikers and command units, especially during Kaiju incidents. Probably the second most important Type to exist.

- Disruptor: Basically does what it says on the tin. They jam communication, suppress other Powers, and try to break organized Vyre or Villain tactics. Usually teamed up with Skirmishers against the Corrupted.

- - Logistics Roles - - 

- Crafter: They make just about every nifty gadget we have against the Vyre nowadays. They produce weapons, tools, consumables, and specialized equipment over long periods of time to support long-term operations against the Vyre. Pretty much the only Type that gets to “stockpile” their Power and build it up over time.

- Engineer: Housing, the giant Walls, entire Cities… The whole thing. They build all of it, either by creating the materials themselves like rockcrete, shaping pre-existing materials into the correct forms or drastically hardening and improving already pre-existing structures.

- Supplier: The only reason we can sustain a good chunk of the population, so, in a way, they’re probably the most important Type out there if we don’t want millions to starve—which we don’t. They help provide food, water, fuel, medicine, or other necessities to sustain both Heroes and civilians alike. Generally through Powers that interact with pre-existing supply chains, but sometimes straight up conjuration as well.

- Transporter: Only global-travel around, not counting the super-rich world elite that can hire entire Hero groups to protect them. Have Powers that can rapidly move one or more people. Some of their Powers can reach to the other side of the globe.

- - Meta & Rare Roles - - 

- Oracle: Just like the namesake, very hit-or-miss with predictions. Future seers, precognition, the whole nine yards. Triss absolutely hates the idea of them as she’s one of the kinds of people to believe in their own fate and all that… Can’t say I disagree!

- Keystone: Probably the rarest of all Types out there. They can generally enhance, stabilize, or straight up unlock the effectiveness of other Heroes’ Powers. Some Keystone-types can even supposedly awaken Powers in civilians pre-disposed to them. Triss and I joked about maybe buying consultation once we’re rich to see if either of us has any such disposition—ha, as if!

- Wildcard: Unclassifiable and a thorn in every legal department’s side. They don’t fall under any specific category, so they have no real legal requirements as written by the WHA, except for what every Hero generally needs to abide by. Super annoying to deal with—likely a topic for the exam!

- Anomaly: The Rule Breakers. These guys break the established rules of what humanity has considered to be true about Powers as a whole. They are treated as high-risk, high-impact variables that nobody truly wants to have around. Also potentially an exam topic, knowing the Professor!”

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[Sadie’s Diary, 2029]

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PoV: Seff “Ironbound” Montagne

The sound of their boots slapping against the asphalt echoed through the empty alleyways as they hurried toward the Convergence’s pull. That gentle tug toward the Incursion’s manifestation point pumped dread straight through Seff’s veins as he led Rob and Telly through the sharp, angular side streets of the Central Haekoz district.

‘Why tonight, of all nights?’ he thought bitterly, unable to push it away. ‘Three more hours and our shift would’ve been over. Instead, we get a fresh Vyre Incursion, right in the Central district…’

It wasn’t his first Vyre Incursion, of course. It wasn’t Rob’s or Telly’s either.

That didn’t make it any less terrifying. 

‘Probably the opposite, even…’

City protocol grouped three synergistic Heroes together on patrols, giving them the best possible chance to keep civilians alive during an unexpected Vyre Incursion without wasting manpower. The city was massive and needed full coverage after all, but the number of Heroes stationed within it was far lower than anyone would’ve liked.

‘Three is only enough to keep the Vyre busy until help arrives,’ Seff thought grimly. ‘Not to push them back. Not to close the Incursion.’

Every civilian death added yet another weight to their conscience. Another number tied to their failures whenever an Incursion broke through. And that didn’t even account for the fact that every second or third Vyre Incursion also claimed at least one Hero.

Mandatory, lengthy training sessions almost every second day. Reality-bending Powers at their fingertips. Carefully planned team synergies coordinated between the WHA and the city government…

It still wasn’t enough. Not against the end of the world. 

Not when—

“I’m detecting 1,374 minds in the immediate vicinity of the Incursion’s point of origin,” Telly’s mental voice cut in through their telepathic link, mercifully snapping Seff out of his spiral. “All but 165 will be able to reach shelters or secured locations once the sirens start. There are seven minds still on the streets, not counting us three.”

“Focus on those seven, Telly. Are they likely to leave once the sirens start? Where are they headed?” Seff replied immediately through the link, his mind snapping back into work mode.

“What about the remaining 165?” Rob added. “Where are they, roughly?”

Having a Spotter like Telly on the team was a godsend. 

Not just because of the shared telepathic link she provided, that made communication effortless even during a dead-sprint like this, but primarily because of the sheer amount of vital information she could simply pull out of thin air.

Knowing exactly how many people were nearby—and where every single sophont mind was—was a luxury most patrols could never even dream of.

“Rob, most of them are in the high-rise south-east of the Incursion point,” Telly replied after only a brief pause. “Twenty-four are in the one to the north-northwest. Another four are inside the conbini at the corner of Fourteenth and Sixteenth.”

Then her tone shifted slightly. “Iron, two of the people still on the street are heading toward the Incursion from the north. They’re on the opposite side of it from us. If they don’t turn back the moment alerts go out, they’re likely to get caught. What do we do?”

‘Fuck,’ Seff swore internally, careful not to let it bleed into the link. He shot an angry glance at his communicator. ‘Where the hell are the sirens and emergency alerts? Hurry the fuck up!’

It had only been moments—probably less than a minute—since Telly had first felt the Incursion begin to form. She was always the most sensitive to that sort of thing in their group, and even compared to most Heroes in the city—Spotter-types just seemed to have a natural affinity for it.

Still, it felt like a damn eternity since Seff had relayed the warning to city authorities through his communicator.

He bit down on his cheek to stay focused, then let out a heavy sigh—as heavy as he could manage while running—and gave the only order he logically could.

“They’re on their own. We can’t risk the rest of the civilians by charging through the Incursion point and having it open right on top of us. That’d kill all three of us and leave the Vyre free to rampage for a good fifteen minutes before the nearest patrol can reinforce.”

Silence followed for a moment as the other two swallowed the protests Seff knew they felt just as strongly as he did. The arguments that they could save everyone if they just tried harder. That they had to try, no matter what.

But they’d all been taught better in class rooms. Experience had taught them better.

Saving everyone wasn’t always possible, and risking a full patrol wipe would lead to far, far more deaths than accepting that harsh truth.

Such was the job of the team leader: To make the tough calls nobody wanted to make. To take the blame for it all. To carry the weight of their failures on his back.

“What about the other five, Telly?” Rob asked after a few seconds, dragging them back to the task at hand—something Seff was quietly grateful for, since the silence after giving an order like that always ate at him.

They cut out of a side street and into yet another alley.

By now, their breathing was coming in hot and heavy. They’d been sprinting at full speed—Telly’s full speed, anyway—for the past minute and a half, and it was the only sound besides their own footsteps echoing through the night.

After a few more moments, Telly answered. “One is moving away from the Incursion toward the north-east. Two more are doing the same toward the south-east. One is stationary—likely asleep—in an alley a few blocks south of the Incursion. The last one is… heading directly toward it?! They’re currently—”

Her projected thoughts cut off mid-sentence just as they burst out of the alley and onto the side street leading straight toward the Incursion’s origin point. Seff and Rob both snapped their heads toward Telly at the sudden stop, only to see her whip her gaze south. 

They followed it—and froze.

“—right behind us,” Telly finished, sharp tension bleeding through her mental voice.

“Villain,” Rob’s seething thoughts seeped out immediately, as he conjured his translucent bow from thin air and locked his grip around it.

Seff’s breath caught as he took in the sight.

A thing stood at the mouth of the alley it had evidently just come from, framed by the harsh spill of streetlight and neon-lit advertisements. 

It was easily over three meters tall.

Its proportions were wrong in a way that made his skin crawl—arms stretched too long, legs elongated past anything that looked natural on a human. Even beneath the massive black trench coat and hoodie, its body seemingly bulged with muscle, thick cords pressing against the fabric like it was barely containing whatever was underneath.

The sheer mass of it radiated danger to him. Every part of the thing looked built to tear, crush, and keep going long after it should have stopped.

And then there was its face.

A mask—or at least, Seff desperately hoped it was a mask.

There was no skin. No human softness at all. Only exposed muscle and sinew stretched tight over bone, teeth bared in a fixed, inhuman grimace. 

Empty hollows where eyes should have been stared back at them, unblinking.

It had clearly spotted them the same moment they had spotted it.
And for a brief moment, it looked like it was deciding whether to bolt or not.

Seff’s gaze flicked down on instinct, scanning for any hints of movement to gauge whether it was coming for them or truly deciding to leave—

—and caught on the strain of fabric across its chest.

Two distinct mounds pushed against the trench coat, unmistakable even on a frame like that.

His thoughts stumbled.

‘R-right. That’s a person. Not a monster,’ he reminded himself. ‘A woman at that.’

He replayed the last few seconds in his head and sent a question through the link. “You said she was heading toward the Incursion, Telly?”

“Yes. Unmistakably,” she replied at once, and Seff wanted to kiss her for always being so on top of things—HR violations be damned.

“I’ll handle it,” Seff sent firmly, signaling the other two to follow him and keep things calm as he started moving toward the towering woman, lifting a hand in a cautious wave.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Rob shot back immediately, his grip tightening on the bow—but he followed anyway.

“Handling it,” Seff replied, turning his full attention back to the woman ahead.

‘Good. She hasn’t run, hasn’t attacked or made any moves… There’s a chance this might actually work,’ he thought. ‘Please let my instincts be right. Please.’

“Hey there!” he called out as he stopped a few meters away, craning his neck to look up at her. “You’re a Powered, right?”

He could practically feel the tension pouring off Telly and Rob behind him as they waited for the crea—woman to respond or make a move.

She slowly tilted her massive head, then glanced down at herself, holding up her arms in front of herself like she was looking at them for the first time, then back at him. 

When she answered, her deep, baritone voice rattled in Seff’s chest.

“Aww man… What gave it away? I was trying to be sneaky about this whole thing… Even brought a disguise and all!”

For a heartbeat, nobody said anything.

Seff’s brain had stalled, gears grinding as it tried to catch up with her words. He’d run through a dozen possible responses in his head on the approach—panic, denial, silence, straight-up aggression.

But that hadn’t even been on the list.

Behind him, he could feel Rob and Telly freeze in the same stunned disbelief. 

The brittle tension hung between them all for another moment, until it finally cracked.

“She got you there, boss,” Rob sent, amusement bleeding through the link as he heard him quietly chuckle behind him.

Telly followed a moment later, mock-curiosity replacing the earlier edge that had dominated her thought-speech. “How did you figure that one out, Iron? A new aspect of your Power, maybe? Something you didn’t tell us?”

Heat crept up Seff’s neck and into his face.

‘Yeah… that probably wasn’t the most eloquent, smartest opener I could’ve come up with,’ he admitted.

Still, as he felt the last of the tension bleed away from the group—and from the towering woman in front of him as well—he couldn’t help but think it had definitely been worth it.

If getting clowned on was the price for defusing the situation without anyone getting hurt, Seff would happily pay it. Altercations with Villains almost never ended with anyone feeling good about how things turned out.

A sudden tug at his focus from the direction of the Incursion made him—and everyone else there—flinch, a sharp reminder of how little time they had left.

“A—anyway,” he continued, turning back to the woman. “I’m Ironbound—or Iron in short—and these two are Telly and Rob. We’re here to deal with the Vyre Incursion, and I’m officially asking for your assistance in this.”

He gestured at the other two heroes behind him, took a breath, then pressed on. “Our reinforcements won’t arrive for another fourteen minutes, and we’re not sure we can keep the nearby civilians safe without additional support. Help us. Please.”

He poured as much honest pleading into his voice as he could without dropping to his knees. The bow of his head that he added to the end of his words was as close to begging as he could allow himself as team leader.

Behind him, Telly and Rob had gone still at the sudden request—at his plea for help from a Villain—but they knew better than to interrupt while the situation was still unfolding…

—

—

To say this wasn’t how I’d imagined my first outing as a newly Powered would go was a massive understatement.

Watching the young Hero—probably around my age, maybe even a bit younger—bow his head and earnestly ask me for help against a Vyre Incursion, all to keep nearby civilians safe…

‘That’s exactly what Heroes are supposed to be,’ I had to admit, a flicker of awe stirring as I looked at him. ‘No hesitation about potentially hurting his own pride. No concern at all for how this might look. No issue making a deal with the devil if it means protecting people who can’t protect themselves…’

It really was unfair.

How was I supposed to say “no” to that request, now?

Not only was he practically begging, he’d also been brutally straightforward and honest about the situation: I was their only real option. No reinforcements for a while, and a near certainty that civilians would get killed if I walked away.

Which would absolutely destroy me with guilt.

‘Well played, Iron,’ I conceded inwardly. ‘Well fucking played.’

“Roles? Ranks?” I grumbled aloud in response, still not thrilled about teaming up with the Heroes, even if they did seem like decent enough folk. I would’ve much preferred them to not be here at all—or, failing that, to be able to handle the Incursion without me.

Iron straightened up, visibly relieved that I’d bitten instead of bolted. 

“Right. Roles and Ranks, then,” he said, tapping his chest with a thumb. “Ironbound—Iron for short. Epsilon-rank. Melee Tank. I lead the group and keep the Vyre busy so they don’t get to the others.”

Up close, he looked roughly my age, with short dark hair and a face that had seen too many bad nights already. His outfit was almost aggressively mundane—reinforced boots, heavy pants, a plain shirt and gloves—so normal, in fact, it stood out more around the other two than a flashy costume likely ever could have.

The most notable part was probably that he was a full-time Hero. As in, somebody that didn’t differentiate between their Hero persona and private identity. Main giveaway was the fact he wasn’t wearing any sort of mask or other gadget to blur his face.

He jerked his head to the side. “That’s Rob. Epsilon-rank, Medium-range Striker.”

Rob was lean, about my age as well, with some dark, scruffy hair peeking out from under his hood and an almost invisible bow clenched in his hands that I hadn’t noticed until literally just now. He wore a dark, leather-like tunic and a hooded cape that fluttered slightly despite the lack of wind inside the district. Definitely a part-time Hero, as he was also wearing some sort of mask underneath the hood.

I forced myself not to tense at the sight of his bow, but a shiver still ran down my spine as the thought hit me. ‘Remember, Triss: You’re part of the Powered world now. These people could kill hundreds—thousands—of normal people if they wanted. That includes your unobservant ass. Pay more attention!’

“And last, but most certainly not least,” Iron said, nodding to the woman behind them, “Telly. Delta-rank, Close-range Spotter–Suppressor hybrid.”

Telly’s outfit was unmistakably a Hero costume: A fitted bodysuit threaded with softly glowing lines, layered utility panels, and a short jacket that looked half-tech, half-tactical. 

A pair of seemingly high-tech goggles rested over her eyes, while her shoulder-length, blonde hair was pulled back into a practical, somewhat messy ponytail that kept it out of her face—a face that proved really difficult to discern underneath the slightly bulky goggles, so also likely to be a part-timer.

I eyed the girl for a few seconds longer, as she was the highest-ranked among them and wanted to get a proper feel for her.

‘Delta-rank hybrid, huh? And Spotter–Suppressor?’ I thought. ‘That’s a really rare combo… These guys got lucky having her on the team.’

Then a realization hit me like a brick straight in the face, and I grimaced behind the mask. 

‘Wait. They said they weren’t sure they could keep people safe. Two Epsilons and a Delta support, and they still aren’t confident…?’

My stomach dropped.

‘What the fuck was I even thinking, charging in here alone?! I would’ve gotten my ass killed!’

“Ehh… what about you, miss?” Iron prompted carefully, clearly trying not to set me off. “You’re a Brawler, right?”

I snapped my focus back to him, realizing I’d been staring at the girl through my mask for a few seconds, lost in my own head.

‘Fuck. That’s actually a great question. What the fuck am I?’

I thought about it for a moment, then slowly inclined my head and grumbled, “Brawler. Epsilon.”

I just went for the most logical choice available to me: Simply claiming I was exactly what they had pegged me as, with the exact same Rank as them. 

I wasn’t about to volunteer how little I actually understood about my own situation. I was already way out of my depth here, and cooperating for now was clearly the smartest move.

“Name’s Nica,” I added. 

Giving them something human to latch onto felt like the safer play. The more I was a person and not “just another Villain,” the lower the odds they’d try to gank me once this was over.

Iron smiled and held out a hand.

I stared at it, briefly considering the logistics of shaking it with my massive hand without crushing his fingers. Then another thought followed close behind: I wasn’t entirely convinced these Heroes even knew what they were offering here.

Sure, they clearly knew more about actual Hero work than I did—seeing as I’d nearly committed suicide-by-Vyre charging in alone—but legally speaking? I had the distinct feeling they were flying completely blind.

Which worked out just fine for me.

I carefully took his hand and gave it a single, gentle pump, making sure not to use any force at all. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the archer—Rob, right?—tighten his grip on the bow the instant I moved.

As I shook, I casually announced, “I’m accepting your proposed temporary alliance under the exact terms of the One World Council’s Powered Emergency Law, claiming the official designation of Vigilante as outlined within it, for the duration of the Vyre Incident and the legally permitted twelve hours following its conclusion. I also formally declare my intent to share in the spoils in proportion equal to my contributions to resolving the Incursion currently manifesting behind you.”

All three of them froze. 

Iron’s hand went rigid in mine.

‘Ah, so they have heard of it,’ I thought, grinning behind my mask. ‘Too late, little Heroes. Should’ve remembered this part of your training more readily. I’m your friend now—officially sanctioned by the very laws that dictate your every move.’

The Powered Emergency Law was a simple one, but also incredibly important.

It allowed Heroes and Villains to work together during large-scale emergencies like Vyre or Kaiju Incursions. After all, nobody benefited from mass civilian deaths caused by alien invaders—not even criminals. So the law existed to encourage Villains to help out in those situations, with a pretty generous set of concessions attached.

First and foremost, a Villain’s status temporarily changed to Vigilante for the duration of the incident and up to twelve hours afterward, depending on what both sides agreed on during negotiations.

Second—and easily the most impactful part—the newly designated Vigilante was legally treated as a separate entity from the Villain. Any crimes committed beforehand were considered suspended for the duration of the Vigilante status. 

If a Hero tried to arrest them after the incident, they would be the ones breaking the law.

Lastly, aside from a long list of specific rules about what each party could and couldn’t do during the truce, there was the spoils clause: Any Vigilante who helped resolve an incident could claim a share of the spoils based on their contribution, with arbitration options available if they felt cheated afterward.

By asking for my help and offering to team up without conditions, they’d handed me the entire agreement on a silver platter. 

They hadn’t set any limits—no reduced Vigilante timer, no capped share of spoils, nothing.

‘So I claimed it all,’ I thought smugly. ‘Everything the law allows is now officially mine, and there’s nothing they can do about it anymore.’

I mean… theoretically, they could have killed me right then and there. But straight up killing Villains—or Heroes, for that matter—was a really, really bad idea. 

Nobody wanted to escalate things between the two sides and drag the actual Superheroes and Supervillains into the mess—the A-Ranks and higher, that could level entire cities if they were let loose.

All that would lead to was massive collateral damage.

So they didn’t really have a choice. And lying about not having made any agreement with me afterward wouldn’t work either. Someone like Truthsayer—or one of his many Power-siblings—would tear that apart in seconds.

No two Powers were ever exactly the same, but certain concepts showed up again and again in the Convergence’s toolkit. Groups that shared a broad idea, like truth telling capabilities, were usually lumped together as Power-siblings of whatever the most prominent Hero with that general Power-theme was.

I let go of Iron’s hand after another moment, only then noticing how completely silent the three of them had become after my declaration.

‘I was at least expecting some kind of reaction,’ I thought, my brows furrowing. ‘But they’re just standing there…?’

Then I saw Iron’s face twitch slightly, like he’d just reacted to something he hadn’t wanted to hear. 

The realization finally clicked. My eyes snapped to the girl.

‘Telly… As in fucking telepathy?! She’s one of Telepath’s Power-siblings, isn’t she?’

That explained her D-ranking immediately. A Power like that was absurdly useful for utility and support—especially since it was apparently only one half of her kit, with the other half providing Suppressor capabilities on top.

‘I’ll need to be careful around her,’ I thought. ‘No matter what the law says about protections.’

Finally, it seemed the Heroes had finished whatever silent conversation they’d been having. Iron forced a smile that didn’t quite hide the strain underneath it. 

‘Definitely need more work on the masking there, bud.’

“Epsilon-rank, huh…?” he said after a moment, his voice tinged with a hint of doubt. “Alright then. You’ll take the frontline with me. We keep the Vyre off the other two, and between the four of us we should be able to hold until reinforcements arrive.”

He gave a small nod.

“Thank you for your assistance during this crisis, Vigilante Nica.”

“My pleasure,” I rumbled back—and I actually meant it.

From what I’d seen so far, these kids were good people. And fighting Vyre to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves? That was exactly what anyone with power should’ve been doing from the very start anyway, with no reservations.

I turned around and headed back into the alley I’d come from barely a minute ago, tossing a quick, “Be right back,” over my shoulder at the Heroes.

If I was going to fight alien freaks, I wasn’t about to let all my clothes get completely wrecked. I didn’t have the luxury of WHA-grade costumes like they did, that might actually be able to stand up to a Scyther or Brute’s hits, so I had to take care of my stuff in a different way.

I walked over to the trash container I’d first used as a desk—and then as a curl weight—and flipped the lid open to peek inside.

‘Not great… but it could be a lot worse,’ I thought, seeing that there wasn’t anything obviously vile near the top.

I shrugged off my trench coat, making sure the black side was facing out, and carefully placed it inside the container. 

Before that, I pulled out all the Vials, Bombs, and Mutagen Injectors from its pockets and shifted them into the pouches of my hoodie and jeans instead.

‘I’m definitely not going to fight naked,’ I told myself, ‘but if even just the coat survives, at least I’ll be decent enough to get home without people calling the cops on me, thinking I’m some kind of degenerate, exhibitionist pervert.’

To say I wasn’t nervous about my upcoming fight debut would’ve been a bold-faced fucking lie. This whole situation was absolutely terrifying.

I’d never even seen a Vyre in person before—which was probably the only reason I was still alive, considering how insanely, ravenously destructive those things were.

Sure, I’d seen plenty of them in classes, movies, shows, and on the news, but that wasn’t even close to the same as actually walking up and beating the shit out of each other until one of you died.

All things considered, I felt far too calm about it. 

That made me pause.

‘Is this a side effect of being Powered now…?’ I wondered. ‘There’s no way I’d put my life on the line like this in any other situation without making damn sure I had a fighting chance first. So why am I so ready to fight a Vyre right here, right now? I should be doing more tests. I shouldn’t feel this confident… but I do.’

I mulled that over as I headed back toward the side street—when a much stronger pull toward the Incursion’s origin suddenly hit me. 

It felt like being yanked forward by a giant magnet, nearly making me stumble.

At the same time, my phone erupted with a garish, bone-rattling alarm as sirens across the city began to wail in unison.

The Vyre Incursion alert had finally gone out, warning civilians to get to shelter immediately.

“Fuck me,” I muttered, picking up the pace as I moved back toward the three Heroes, who were all staring in the same direction toward the Incursion.

They’d felt the pull too.

They turned toward me as they heard my footsteps thunder across the street.

“We should hurry,” Iron said tentatively, as he turned off the alarm on his phone.

I nodded as I did the same, fumbling a bit with the way-too-tiny thing. “I’m ready.”

He nodded back, and the four of us started moving toward the source of the pull, which grew stronger with every step.

I had to slow myself down—my height made each stride roughly equal to three of theirs—but even so, we reached the side street’s intersection in under a minute.

“Stop here,” Iron ordered. Rob nodded immediately and broke off toward the opposite side of the street, taking up position. Telly stepped back a few paces instead, placing herself centrally behind Iron and me.

In a voice barely above a whisper—so quiet I only caught it because he was standing right beside me—Iron said, “Please help me save everyone, Nica. That’s all I care about. I didn’t tell the others about the blood on your gloves, and I don’t care about it now either. You don’t seem like a bad person to me, so whoever put that blood there probably deserved it. Just… Please don’t hold back. Help us get through this, okay? Telly and Rob are still new, and I can’t lose either of them here…”

I stiffened at the mention of blood, then remembered the guy I’d slammed into the wall earlier—how much spittle and blood he’d sprayed after losing a few teeth during our little chat.

‘Right… That happened.’

The fear and uncertainty in Iron’s voice pulled at something else within my chest.

‘There’s grief in there too, isn’t there?’ I thought, my head turning slightly towards him to let myself take a look at him, ‘You’ve lost a team before… or at least someone important, haven’t you, Iron?’

I wasn’t sure why he was opening up like this to me, of all people. Maybe it was the same reason I’d given them a name earlier—to seem more human. But I couldn’t be sure. 

Trust between Heroes and Villains didn’t just appear because of a temporary Vigilante label.

“I’ll do my best,” I easily agreed, as I had already intended to do so anyway.

Something in my voice must’ve convinced him as well, because I saw some of the tension drain from his posture.

“Thank you,” he whispered back.

Then, without warning, he abruptly sank about a centimeter into the asphalt with a loud crunch as his skin, clothes, and hair all turned a metallic, shimmering gray.

‘Whoa,’ I thought, watching the instant transformation. ‘That explains the Ironbound name, I guess: A Metalmorph… I really should’ve figured that out from the name and the lack of a real outfit… That one’s squarely on me.’

My nerves, on the other hand, were finally starting to behave exactly how I’d expected them to, given the situation. With the Incursion looming ever closer and sirens screaming all around us, that familiar knot of fear crawled up my throat.

I’d heard those sirens countless times growing up, and never once had they meant anything but pure terror. Rushing to shelters with my parents. Hiding in cramped safe rooms.

Sitting in the dark, waiting for the all-clear and hoping the Heroes had handled something we couldn’t even begin to fight ourselves. 

Calling it trauma almost felt too gentle.

But, really, that was just life.

You heard the sirens. You ran. And sometimes, you didn’t make it.

Maybe you were too slow. Maybe the shelters filled up. Maybe the bunker doors closed just a little too early. Or maybe the Incursion ruptured sooner than expected, and there simply wasn’t enough time for any of it.

And then you would die—that was it.

That fear—the constant dread of losing someone I cared about, or dying myself with no recourse available to me—was burned deep into my bones. 

It probably always would be.

So even now, with practically everything being different that could possibly be different, hearing those sirens howl across the city still made my blood run cold.

I fingered the Vials and Bombs hidden in my hoodie pockets with my left hand, turning over how I might use them once the fight started. Brawlers with elemental quirks or straight-up explosive aspects to their Powers weren’t exactly unheard of, so it wouldn’t be a huge leap for the Heroes to assume I was one of those types if I used any of them.

‘As long as they don’t actually see me pulling any of this stuff out, anyway…’

Not that I owed them explanations even if they asked about anything they might see—our truce didn’t include that—but letting them think of me as just a Brawler felt a lot safer than being some weird, undefined Type they couldn’t quite pin down. 

The less I stuck around in their heads, the better.

‘So, as tempting as it is to test the Bombs or [Alchemist’s Fire], I’ll stick to raw muscle for now. Unless we start getting overrun. Then holding back won’t matter anyway—we’ll all just die, and there won’t be a future Triss to worry about,’ I decided.

I shifted into a more grounded stance, letting my massive body settle and find its center of gravity, leaning into the weight of it.

I was very, very glad I’d taken combat classes seriously back in high school—back when Sadie and I had still secretly hoped for a Keystone Ascendancy. 

Otherwise, this would’ve been my first real fight ever. 

At least now, I had a rough idea of what not to do. That was about as far as my knowledge reached however, so this was very much still going to be a trial by fire at best.

To distract myself from the rising anxiety tightening in my chest, I forced myself to carefully look around, trying to burn every detail of the area we’d be fighting in into my mind.

It was a three-way cross of side-streets stretching out to the east, west, and south—where we’d come running from—with the pull of the Incursion sitting slightly off to the west side of the intersection. The only path towards the north were several narrow alleyways, squeezed tight between tall, looming buildings that blocked out most of the sky.

Outside of the street itself, everything else felt thoroughly cramped. 

The buildings were packed close together, concrete and glass stacked high with barely any breathing room between them. On the corner to our southeast sat a large store, its lights off, a hastily activated neon CLOSED sign displayed in the window, metal barricades already lowered since the sirens had started wailing. 

Anyone inside would be heading underground by now, into the store’s safe room, hoping it would be enough until the Incursion was dealt with.

But they were way too close for comfort.

If we slipped up even once—just one second of lost attention—a Vyre could crash straight into the building, tear open the safe room, and rip through the civilians inside before we even realized what had happened. 

The same was honestly true for most of the buildings around us. Too many hiding places. Too many blind spots. Too many alleys for something fast and violent to disappear into.

‘This is going to be a complete fucking nightmare to manage,’ I quickly realized, a heavy knot settling in my stomach next to the growing tumor that was the anxiety from the siren.

The only thing working in our favor here was that Vyre were utterly ravenous and equally dumb, driven more by pure instinct than thought.

And right now, I was a really big, really obvious slab of meat, standing out in the open with absolutely nothing to hide my presence from them.

My head kept swiveling as I took the area in—then abruptly stopped as a follow-up thought snapped into place.

‘Wait a damn second…’

I slowly turned my head toward Iron, who was still standing right beside me, and eyed him carefully. ‘Did this motherfucker ask me to help keep things under control because he saw my big fucking ass out here and thought, “Wow, she’ll make great Vyre bait”?!’

I was half-considering asking him exactly that, mostly just to keep my mind off things, when two things happened at the same time.

First, the Incursion’s pull hit me again, knocking me half a step toward it. Iron, meanwhile, stayed exactly where he was, but his face hardened instantly, the forced calm from before gone.

Second, the sirens stopped wailing entirely.

The moment they did, I realized a major flaw in my earlier thinking.

‘The sirens wailing isn't the scariest part…’

The silence that followed them was.

That sudden, dead quiet after the ear-shattering noise, when the sirens were cut in preparation for the Incursion’s eruption. The silence was meant to let Heroes and Guardian troops communicate, to hear the Vyre moving mid-combat, instead of having to shout over the alarms that wouldn’t save anyone left out in the open anyway.

But standing there, on that street corner, the contrast the quiet created felt like a physical weight pressing down on me. My heart hammered in my chest, adrenaline flooding my system as my hands started to shake slightly.

Iron next to me inhaled slowly, then spoke up, his voice surprisingly firm given the situation, carrying just enough to reach all of us without echoing down the streets unnecessarily.

“Alright, here’s what’s going to come through that thing.”

I focused on his words, grateful for the anchor.

“Grunts first. They’re slow, ugly, and have lots of teeth. Not a major problem unless you get surrounded or they land a lucky hit—don’t let them. Then come the Scythers—long limbs, bladed arms and fast. They like to rush and flank, so watch each other’s backs. Lastly, there might be a Brute if we’re unlucky. Huge, slow, but they hit like a truck. Whatever you do, do not get hit by them.”

He paused, letting that information settle for a moment.

“Remember that they’re Vyre. They’re alien. They’re not human,” he continued, voice hardening just a touch. “They’re the antithesis of everything we care about. No mercy. No hesitation. You hesitate, you die—and you take the rest of us with you.”

I had no intention of showing mercy to the Vyre at any point. 

‘Grandma… Grandpa… This is for you,’ I quietly vowed, forming my massive hands into fists to stop my hands from shaking.

“Aim for the eyes,” Iron went on. “Their brains are usually right behind them. Anatomy’s not the same as ours in general, but that part still holds true. Crippling them doesn’t stop them. They don’t care about pain the same way we do. So go for the kill. Every time.”

He glanced up at me briefly when he said the next part, clearly including me without making a big thing of it—which was very much appreciated.

“If any of us gets too injured to keep fighting, fall back east, up the street. Stay visible. Don’t hide. If you’re still being chased, we’ll peel them off you. If we can’t see you, you’re at risk of getting run down by a Scyther that slipped by. Do not hide.”

The last part seemed particularly forceful to me, and I couldn’t help but think that there was a very good reason he had mentioned that aspect twice.

‘I guess now I know what happened to at least one of his prior teammates…’

“Stick together. Watch each other’s backs. We’ve got eleven minutes until reinforcements arrive. That’s it. We don’t need to close the Incursion. We just need to hold them here and keep them away from the safe rooms and bunkers.”

Silence followed his words, but it felt different now.

My breathing evened out as the plan settled into place inside my mind. Having it laid out like that—clear threats, clear rules, clear goals—did more for my nerves than anything else could have.

Iron really knew what he was doing.

And as much as I hated to admit it, I’d gotten really, really lucky running into these three. If I’d walked into this alone… I probably would have gotten myself killed.

I took several deep—very deep, considering my massive lungs—steadying breaths, trying to calm whatever nerves Iron’s short speech hadn’t already wrangled into line.

‘Not that that’s really gonna help…’

My heartbeat pounded in my ears as the tight knot of anxiety in my chest threatened to make me throw up into my own mask—which would’ve been fucking embarrassing.

Luckily—or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it—Telly cut that short.

“They’re coming,” she announced, her voice audibly strained with the same coiled fear I was fighting down.

How she knew, I had no idea. But it didn’t matter. 

A heartbeat later, while the echo of her words was still rolling through the empty Haekoz streets, the world shattered.

For a split second, the world seemed to flip upside down, like gravity had forgotten which way was supposed to be down. A vicious jolt of vertigo slammed through me as literal shards of reality itself fractured out of mid-air—jagged, glassy slivers of nothing—and fell toward the ground, only to vanish before they could even hit it.

Then the rupture abruptly finished opening entirely.

In less than a heartbeat, the tear stabilized at roughly head height for me, a two-meter-wide wound in the world, easily twice as tall as I was now. Its edges crawled and writhed, like space itself was trying—and failing—to stitch itself back together.

And then the Vyre came pouring out.

Just like Iron had said, the Grunts were first.

They were wretched, twisted little homunculi things, dragged straight out of a nightmare—rotund, bulbous bodies roughly the size of a medium-sized dog with no real distinction between head and torso. 

A single massive maw dominated the front of each one, packed with rows upon rows of needle-sharp teeth, while three oversized eyes bulged from the flesh above it. 

Three thick legs were arranged symmetrically around their bodies, supporting the obscene weight, with two arms jutting out from either side of the head-torso and a third arm protruding straight out of the top, twitching continuously as if searching for something to rip and tear at.

The very instant the first one fully cleared the rupture—an arrow punched straight through one of its eyes with a vicious ripping and tearing sound.

The force of it was unreal. 

The shaft blew out the back of the creature’s head-torso in a violent spray of neon-violet blood and liquefied tissue, the Grunt collapsing mid-lunge like its strings had been cut.

But it didn’t stop there.

It kept going, tearing straight into two more Grunts that had just started to hurl themselves out of the rupture behind it—killing another outright and ripping one of the legs clean off the third. The maimed creature hit the street screaming, thrashing and hobbling towards Iron and myself, as its blood continuously splattered across the asphalt underneath it.

I didn’t spend even a second thinking about it before I used my massive legs to close the distance in a single step and kicked the injured Grunt with all the force I could muster, straight into its nasty, snarling little face.

I had very clearly underestimated my own strength by quite a solid margin.

There was barely any resistance at all as my foot connected—no strain, no real pushback—just a wet, meaty slap, followed by the sound of tissue ripping apart like paper. 

In the span of a heartbeat, the Grunt’s face and body simply… ceased to exist. 

My boot tore straight through it, and the creature detonated into a spray of neon-violet gore, chunks of flesh and severed limbs flung tumbling through the air and disappearing somewhere behind the rupture. 

What was left of it—two legs and a couple of arms with no head-torso to speak of—cartwheeled uselessly across the street and disappeared behind the chaos.

I froze for half a second, staring at my own leg.

‘Holy fuck—’

The moment didn’t even last a heartbeat.

A deafening metallic clang rang out behind me, snapping me back to reality.

Iron was hammering his hands together again and again, metal on metal, producing a brutal, echoing cacophony that cut through the night and echoed off of the walls around us. 

The sound seemed to hit the Grunts like a switch flipping—several of them twisted mid-leap, their many eyes locking onto him as they screeched and redirected, drawn to him like moths to a flame.

At the same time, a handful of Grunts that had been lunging toward me abruptly jerked to a stop in mid-air, as if seized by an invisible hand. 

They hung there for a brief moment, limbs flailing uselessly, before being slammed straight down into the asphalt with considerable force. The impact was sickening—bones cracking, flesh compressing, shrill, broken shrieks bursting out as bodies pancaked, stopped moving or were broken to a point they could no longer do anything but.

And all around me, it all just kept happening at an every-increasing rate.

Grunts poured through the tear in reality, only to drop dead mid-charge as arrows punched clean through their eyes. Rob’s shots came fast and utterly merciless—each translucent arrow tearing through one target and carrying enough force to keep going, ripping holes through two, sometimes three bodies in a line. 

Violet blood rained down in sheets in front of me, splattering the street as carcasses piled up directly beneath the Incursion almost as quickly as they could arrive.

The street had turned into a complete slaughterhouse in mere moments.

But even with Telly and Rob doing their absolute best, there were simply too many Grunts for the two of them to keep them contained at the portal.

Half a dozen of them had already leapt toward Iron by the time Telly finished smashing the first group that had lunged at me, and another group of similar size managed to shove and crawl over the growing pile of bodies to reinforce them. 

I moved to intercept, watching out of the corner of my eye as Iron reshaped his hands into long blades and tore into the approaching Grunts, slicing them apart like they were made of wet toilet paper, their teeth clattering uselessly against his iron body.

It only took a single step to get close enough to the reinforcing Grunts, my massive size feeling like a godsend in that moment, and I swept my right arm low across the ground toward them. In one huge motion, I caught four of them in my attack, while two had just seen my arm coming early enough to jump over it. 

I hurled the four I had hit with my sweep with everything I had, flinging them away from Iron and myself.

Their shrieks cut off abruptly as they slammed into the concrete facades of the nearby high-rises with sickening, meaty slaps, some bodies bursting apart on impact and leaving behind grotesque splashes, others crumpling as bones and limbs shattered, their broken whimpers the only sound left of them.

But I didn’t pay much attention to their fates.

I was already swinging my left arm at the remaining two, trying to finish it quickly—but they were focused on me now. 

Even if they were slow, hitting both at once just wasn’t going to happen if they both tried to evade me. My hand only managed to catch one, and it met the same end as the others, splattered across a nearby building.

The last Grunt jumped.

I felt its teeth rip through my jeans like they were nothing and sink straight into the flesh beneath. 

I screamed as pain flared up my leg and instinct took over. 

With my right hand, I slapped the thing straight in the face, detonating its head-torso against the pavement at my feet.

“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath, but I didn’t have time to deal with the wound. Another three groups of Grunts had already pushed past Telly and Rob’s best efforts to keep them contained. 

The real problem however, was that they weren’t fully drawn to either me or Iron this time.

A good number of them were angling toward Telly and Rob behind us.

Iron was just finishing off the last Grunts that had gone for him on the first round, but he was also still positioned a few steps behind me. 

So I made myself as wide and imposing as I could—which, frankly, was fucking massive—and did the first thing that came to mind to grab their attention.

I screamed.

My baritone voice, pushed to the full power of my gigantic lungs and resonating through my massive torso, tore through the street. 

It drowned out the Grunts’ shrieks and the noise of the fight entirely, echoing off the walls around us like a beast had decided to drop by and end all of this nonsense on a whim.

The Grunts stuttered mid-movement in raw, stunned confusion, then snapped their focus in my direction, their large, beady eyes filled with indignant rage.

‘Come get me, you little freak fucks…!’

And then all three groups started charging straight at me…

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