Chapter 1.2.18 — Serenity 3

Serenity and Hunter Nine flew high across the rooftops of the warehouse district. Well, Serenity flew, Hunter Nine floated arrogantly on top of a giant ethereal hand. Their Summit drone followed close behind. While they scanned with their eyes, it scanned other spectrums and fed them additional notifications via their headsets.

“Four heat signatures. Ten o’clock, third floor.”

“Class one psychic battle, one block East.”

“Two unknown aerial supers moving North, acceptable flight pattern and speed.”

Occasionally, it relayed police codes for car accidents and shots fired, but cape details weren’t required to respond unless police explicitly requested Summit aid.

Besides, Hunter Nine would have rejected almost any call. It was late Friday night and getting toward the end of their shift, but that wasn’t stopping him from utilizing every possible minute on duty.

“Are you ready to head back yet?” Serenity asked, doing her best to keep her voice level.

“No,” Hunter said, arms crossed over his costume vest. “It’s not time yet.”

“It will be by the time we get back to base.”

Hunter scoffed. “We would have found them by now if you took your job seriously.”

Serenity sighed and shook her head. “Fine,” she muttered. Better to work until the proverbial clock struck rather than upset her barely contained partner.

Ever since the Champion street attack, Hunter had been losing it. In a way, she didn’t blame him. Serenity didn’t know how she would take it if her actions directly resulted in civilian deaths. So far she’d been lucky, but she knew it was statistically only a matter of time.

Still, Hunter was becoming unbearable, and worse—

Gunshots echoed below them.

“Shit!” Hunter said, flaring his power. The magical hand beneath his feet grew until it was large enough to shield Serenity, too. Bullets slammed harmlessly into the edge of the ethereal shield, causing ripples across the surface.

Serenity could just make out three figures standing on a roof below.  One of them quickly fired off the rest of the magazine, but only one more bullet hit Hunter’s shield. Whoever they were, they had shit aim.

Hunter growled, and magical spears coalesced in the air around them. It was a second before the weapons were completely summoned. Then he hurled them at the roof.

All three enemies ran, narrowly avoiding the spears as they crashed into the roof. The impaled spears disappeared a moment later—Hunter Nine was already summoning more.

“If you want me to help, get us closer!” Serenity shouted.

Her telekinesis was limited by distance, and there was little she could do from so far away. Right now, she was reliant on Hunter Nine for protection from their firearms. In training, Serenity had been able to stop a bullet, but after their run in with that cyborg last Friday night, she didn’t want to put her skills to the test again.

The figures reached the rooftop door, and Serenity reached out with her power. She strained, but managed to hold the door shut. They struggled with the knob and then threw their shoulder against the door. Serenity winced at the mental feedback, like something being pulled through her fingertips.

If Hunter would just descend—

Beside her, her partner’s spears finished forming and he hurled them at the three figures with deadly intent.

Horrified, Serenity let go of the door. The three pulled it open and dove inside, narrowly avoiding the spears. There was no doubt all three of them would’ve been skewered alive.

“Damnit! Can’t you do anything right?” Hunter seethed at her as the ethereal hand finally descended.

Serenity bit her tongue. “I slipped.”

“Go to the next floor down and cut them off.”

“I’d rather stick together. Get me close and I’ll freeze them.”

“Fine.”

By the time Hunter got them down to the rooftop, Serenity could already feel their enemies descending through the main stairwell. She couldn’t stop them, not through the concrete, but she could sense them—three young men and they were scared. Serenity could almost make out their names…

“Where are they?” Hunter growled.

“Go around the side of the building. We’ll meet them on the ground floor.”

The ethereal hand lurched, and Serenity used her telekinesis to steady herself.

As they drifted down the side of the building, Serenity’s sense extended through the windows and the halls. Glass and drywall weren’t as much of an obstruction to her psychic powers.

“Are all of them armed?” Hunter asked.

Serenity closed her eyes and focused.

Cody, Jensen, and Xi… Members of the Belport Bulls… She said aloud, “They’re on the first floor now, and deciding whether to take their chances on the street or—” Suddenly, all their thoughts were hushed by the sight of superheroes floating outside.

“Shield!” Serenity shouted.

A moment later, gunshots crashed through the windows and slammed harmlessly into Hunter’s ethereal hand. This time, the men’s aim had been better, but none of the shots would’ve hit them.

“They’re going into the underground,” Serenity added.

“So are we.”

Hunter Nine set them down on the ground, then reformed the enormous hand in front of them and extended it so that it was over ten feet across. Its fingers punched into the wall, tearing through it like tissue paper. The hand closed into a fist, taking the wall with it.

Hunter and Serenity ran through the wreckage and she directed them to the maintenance stairwell.

“Stop!” she said psychically, but if her message reached them, the men didn’t stop running.

Serenity reached out as she ran, trying to maintain her awareness as her targets descended into concrete tunnels below the warehouse district. Only moments before, the gang members had stuck out like beacons in her psychic awareness, but already they were shrinking to candles.

Despite this, she didn’t mention it to Hunter Nine. A part of her hoped that the men would escape and that would force her and Hunter to call off their chase. It was against Summit protocol to go into unknown and unsecure areas—it was too easy to get lured into a trap.

Serenity didn’t think the men were luring them into a trap. They felt far too panicked. They were just running for their lives.

Hunter shoved aside debris as they ran, throwing broken shelves, benches, and tables, and sending them crashing into the walls. The tiny candles flared in Serenity’s mind—the men clearly heard the destruction.

Hunter nearly slammed the maintenance door off its hinges as they ran into the stairwell. The concrete stairs descended into utter darkness. Both Hunter and Serenity pulled out their flashlights before continuing.

“Do you still have them?” Hunter asked as they ran down the stairs.

“They’re faint.”

“Goddamnit!”

The stairs went down two flights before leveling off into a long maintenance corridor. Hunter and Serenity stopped and their flashlights cast long shadows down the hall. Pipes and electrical cables ran along the walls. Dead lights hung from the ceiling.

Even though Serenity’s psychic abilities let her sense other people nearby, even in total darkness, there was something foreboding about the tunnels. Serenity didn’t need to read Hunter’s mind to know that he was just as apprehensive as she was.

Hunter shifted uneasily. “Do you still have them?”

The flickers of candlelight were still there in her mind’s eye. Faint, but still there. It was almost like the men had stopped running and were trying to hide.

Serenity didn’t answer right away.

“No,” she lied.

Hunter groaned, then formed a hand shield in front of him that blocked the entire hallway. “Come on. The hallway is a straight shot.”

“We shouldn’t go in without backup.”

“You’re my backup,” Hunter Nine said as he strolled forward.

For a moment, Serenity considered turning around, but abandoning a teammate was a punishable offense. Serenity grit her teeth and stormed after him.

The hall extended on for over two hundred feet before it started branching out. Hunter used his power to tear the metal doors off their hinges, revealing storage closets or other hallways. By the time they reached a second set of doors, even Hunter stopped.

Each new branch in the hallway was a chance they’d take the wrong path, or a chance they might get ambushed and cut off from retreat.

“Do you still have them?” Hunter asked as he glanced from doorway to doorway.

Serenity did feel them. Their candles were steadily growing brighter. The men were still hiding—maybe they’d run into a dead end somewhere.

And now that the men weren’t panicking so much, she could read more of their surface thoughts: It was an initiation for all three of them. To get into the Belport Bulls, they’d shot at passing supers—not meaning any harm.

Serenity scanned the little more of their thoughts that she could and shook her head. She’d seen it before: People forced into positions they didn’t want to be in. Didn’t matter if it was gangs or villains or capes. When it came right down to it, they had little choice in their circumstances.

Serenity could relate.

Hunter busted down another door, and suddenly the candles flared in her mind’s eye. Wherever the men were hiding, they were close enough to hear Hunter’s destruction.

Meanwhile, Hunter Nine pressed through the hall, undeterred. If Serenity didn’t do anything, he would stumble on their targets.

“Not that way,” Serenity said.

Hunter stopped. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He spun around, his flashlight blinding her for a second. “This is foolish.”

“I’m glad we agree.” Even if Serenity and Hunter caught the three gang members and interrogated them, it was unlikely they knew anything worthwhile. And if they took them to a police station, it was unlikely that they’d be held for long. It would just make their shift longer.

Hunter stormed past Serenity, shouldering her out of the way. “Foolish that we can’t even find three punks. Screw this. I’m going back up.”

Serenity sighed and lowered her flashlight. She stared down the long, dark hall toward the three hiding men. Psychically, she whispered, “It’s okay. We’re leaving.”

In her mind, the candles flickered with surprise, confusion, and then gratitude.

Maybe, just maybe, supers showing them mercy would be worth something.

Serenity followed her teammate back through the maintenance tunnels and up to the street. Then the two flew back to base to end their shift. The whole time, Serenity tried to hide her relief.

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