Chapter 1.1.23 — Types of Supers

Emmett napped on the bus to class and then dozed off again on the bus to the lab. He’d done homework until almost three in the morning before he finally gave up and went to sleep.

His older brother Darryl used to say that as he got older, it got harder to pull late nights. Emmett hadn’t believed him until now.

At the bus stop near the lab, Emmett wondered if it would be any easier to pull an all-nighter if he was doing something related to being a super rather than doing schoolwork. Would it be easier to stay awake patrolling the city, chasing a villain, or staking out their lair?

Did supers get bored?

Emmett scoffed. He couldn’t imagine getting bored while he was running across the rooftops of Belport, or while training in the Gray Room.

Just thinking about training made him walk a little faster across the West End to the lab.

~

A few minutes later, Emmett was in the Gray Room beside Clara’s robot while white tiles rose up out of the floor.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you,” Clara’s robot said.

Emmett turned, tensing up unconsciously—it was only a few words away from that infamous phrase, ‘we need to talk’.

“About what?” Emmett asked.

“Follow me.”

The robot jogged away and then leapt up to the top of a second story building. Emmett followed, leaping halfway up, grabbed the edge of the roof with his whip, and hauled himself up the rest of the way.

He tried not to smile too hard with satisfaction as he climbed over the edge and retracted the whip back into his forearm. The whole movement felt so easy and natural, and for a moment he forgot all about ‘we need to talk’.

It was hard to believe that he’d only had one day of movement training with the whip.

Dr. Venture was right about Mutagen-A enhancing muscle memory. It made Emmett even more excited about the rest of his training.

And curious about what Gnosis’s other mutagens were like.

Clara cleared her throat. “What did you do wrong Tuesday night when you fought Zanté on the roof?”

“Oh…” Emmett wasn’t sure what he had expected, but this wasn’t the worst thing or the best thing she could’ve brought up.

“...I’m not sure,” he said in earnest. He got the crap beat out of him, so there was probably a lot that could’ve been better.

“You should’ve run: You were outnumbered, and fighting two unknown supers. As soon as you realized that Zanté, er Skull Mask, outclassed you, you should’ve run. But that’s not the worst—he gave you an easy out and you didn’t take it.”

Up until that point, Emmett had been trying not to feel like he was getting a talking to from his mother.

“Wait… What out did he give me?

Clara’s robot stared at him, and let out an exasperated sigh. “He tried to throw you off the roof.”

“How is that an out?!”

“Next time, let them throw you off the roof.”

Emmett shook his head. “Clara, I don’t know what you think would happen to me if I fell off a roof, but I can’t fly.”

“Think, Emmett… You already knew that Zanté was stronger than you. If someone outclasses you in close-quarter combat, the last place you want to be is within arm’s reach of them.”

“It was a two-story building!”

“And you have super strength!”

Emmett stared at Clara’s robot, feeling like a frustrated and rapidly deflating balloon.

She must’ve noticed. “It was only a two-story building… Sorry. Sometimes I forget what it’s like to be new at this.”

“It’s okay. It didn’t even occur to me when I was up there.” Emmett peered over the edge of the building, down to the faux street below. “It really wouldn’t hurt?”

The robot shrugged. “It might feel like falling on your back and getting the wind knocked out of you, but I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t break anything.”

Emmett chuckled, still looking over the edge. “Pretty sure—”

Clara pushed him from behind, and Emmett toppled over the edge of the building.

He yelled in surprise, his heart already pounding. Eyes half-closed, he twisted, trying to orient himself to land, and hit the ground a moment later—

Feet first, rolled across the ground, and sprung to his feet.

Then Emmett stood on the ground in disbelief.

He’d just managed to land on his feet, like a cat. And it hadn’t hurt his legs at all—the rolling was probably unnecessary.

Clara was right: Falling off a two-story building wasn’t enough to hurt him.

Clara called from the rooftop. “Not bad. Now get back up here.”

~

They spent the next hour running through combat drills in the Gray Room: Punches, kicks, blocks, grapples—

All of it was easier than yesterday.

Emmett tried to push aside the excitement and disbelief. Turned it into an incentive to focus that much harder on his training.

If he could learn faster than a normal human, then he resolved to train harder than a normal human.

Emmett concentrated on every punch, every kick, every move.

Clara’s robot squared up with him on top of the gray two-story building. Emmett ducked and weaved around blue punches before countering with his own. His fists clanged against its metal torso.

That was something else—the robot’s metal felt soft, almost forgiving, with each punch. Like the robot’s strength and durability could change as easily as the tiles shaped the faux city around them.

A punch glanced against Emmett’s chin, quickly bringing him back to the moment.

He retaliated with three more punches—not bothering to slip Clara’s counter punch. The blue first hit him directly in the face, but Emmett leaned into it and followed up with his own—

Emmett punched hard, throwing all his weight into it and hitting the robot in the head. The impact echoed through the Gray Room and Clara’s robot stumbled backward across the roof.

Emmett didn’t follow. His vision swam from taking a direct hit.

Thankfully, Clara didn’t move either.

Clara laughed. “That was a gamble.”

“Thanks,” Emmett muttered, planting his feet to keep the room from spinning. “I think.”

“You know you’re going to be one of the weakest in a fight, right?”

“I… Well, no. I didn’t know that.”

“You need to remember that,” Clara said sternly. “You’re only class one, and a new one at that. You won’t be the strongest or the fastest. And you won’t be the most experienced or have the best technique.”

Emmett winced. He knew that—of course he did. He just didn’t want to think about it.

But he would have to get over that fact. He was one of the weakest right now, but he wouldn’t always be.

Emmett wouldn’t stay weak forever.

Emmett swallowed his pride and asked, “So, what am I supposed to do?”

“You have to fight strategically. Don’t get into a fight with an unknown super. Figure out any weakness or exploits they have: For instance, pyrokinetics might be weak to extreme cold, certain mutations might be weak to sonic waves, or other artificers might use tech that we have counters to.”

“What if they don’t have a weakness?”

“Most won’t,” Clara replied, “but at the very least, you need to know what powers they have. That way, you can protect yourself or directly counter them. For example, I would never get within arm’s reach of someone like Zanté who has super strength. I would stay in the air and fire from range.”

Emmett smirked. “Must be nice to be able to fly.”

Clara laughed, her hard tone finally softening. “It is.”

Emmett thought back to Tuesday night on the roof—to Green Mask.

“What about psychics?”

~

Clara didn’t answer right away. She made Emmett wait until they were done training and both back in the training hub.

She was hanging up the rest of her Virtual Reality suit when Emmett came in. He tried his best to look at random displays and not at Clara’s tank top. Emmett swallowed nervously.

“Where’s your dad?” he asked, remembering Venture’s tendency to pop up suddenly and unannounced.

“He’s working in section four. Didn’t say what he was working on. I think he wanted some time to himself.”

“Doesn’t he get a lot of that already?”

Clara chuckled quietly. “Yeah, I guess so.”

A moment later, Clara slipped her baggy green sweater and beanie on and pulled up the center table’s holographic display. She pulled up four separate columns and filled each with information.

“There are a bunch of different ways to classify powers,” Clara said, “but since you’re working with us, you’re going to learn our system.

“First, the Augmented supers—these are the ones that make or conjure their enhancements. Artificers like myself who use technology, or mages or artifact wielders that use magic. It amounts to the same thing. Sometimes these items can grant the wielder powers like those from other categories.

“Next are the Physically Enhanced—body or mind. They’re stronger, faster, smarter or have better senses than a normal human.

“Then there are the Kinetics—those whose powers can affect others. Psychics, telekinetics, elementalists, illusionists, all fall into this category. Even things like flight, reality and time warping count.

“Last are the Anti-Powers—those that negate other categories of powers. These can be broad, like being physically invulnerable, or more generic, like immunity to fire and heat. They also include specific immunities. Magic blessings are sometimes like this—like you’re immune to a specific weapon heirloom of an ancient family.”

Emmett nodded along, looking over the columns and listings that hung in the air.

Clara shuffled the columns to the side, and pulled up the Division of Superhuman Affairs’ familiar bullseye logo.

“The Class ranking system used by the DSA is good for broadly describing threats, but it breaks down on a granular level. Certain powers are better at countering others, and so a psychic and an artificer will fare differently against someone like Zanté or you—even if they’re all the same class rank.

“So as important as it is to familiarize yourself with the Class ranking system, it’s not enough. You need all the information you can get before going into a fight. That means research, reconnaissance, and countermeasures.”

“Okay,” Emmett said, trying to take in all the info. “But how do I counter a psychic?”

Clara shrugged. “There’s not a lot you can do. You can practice mental grounding exercises. Or you can run.”

“Is that what you and Venture did?”

“No. The helmets of our armor are shielded against most psychic attacks, but you can’t really have eye holes or even air holes. Every opening makes the shielding less effective.”

Emmett joked, “I guess I’ll just have to ask your dad to make me a suit, then.”

Clara scoffed. “Fat chance. He didn’t even want to make me a suit. Dad wanted me to make it myself.”

“What changed?”

Clara turned back to the holographic display. “I didn’t have time.” Before Emmett had a chance to ask Clara to explain, she said, “Psychics are one of the hardest counters you’ll come up against. They don’t have to touch you to hurt you. I suggest you run.”

“...That’s it? Just run?”

Clara shrugged. “Unless you turn yourself into a robot, you’re always going to be vulnerable to psychic attacks.”

Emmett frowned, unsatisfied with her answer.

It seemed like every power set had a counter, and Emmett liked the idea of being able to prepare for a battle.

Again, he thought back to the other night on the rooftop—how Green Mask had made the world feel small and claustrophobic. As far as psychic powers went, Emmett imagined that was probably the least horrifying.

He wasn’t sure about turning himself into a robot, but there had to be something he could do to defend against that. If Emmett really was going to defend himself and make it so he never felt powerless again, then he would need to find something to counter psychics. Even if it meant making his own armor suit.

“Come on,” Clara said, signaling for them to get back to training. “You’ve got a lot of practice before you worry about that.”

Reluctantly, Emmett agreed.

~ ~ ~