Incandescent Guardians

by D. R. Rosier

  Call me a pussy, but it really felt like I was there again, I could remember it in perfect detail. The agony, the suffering, the empty glassy look in my father’s dead eyes, my mother’s screams of shocked agony, and the helplessness and impotence I felt at not being able to move, to do anything.

  I took a deep breath, and I sighed at the gentle kiss she placed on my chest.

  “The car and metal shrieked and groaned as the car flipped toward the lake extremely slowly with the remaining momentum the rocks didn’t absorb. Or maybe it was just tilted that way, and gravity took care of the rest. It landed on its left side jarringly, which made me tumble into the steering wheel and my father’s corpse. Then it fell once more, from its side to upside down, and my body screamed in pain as I fell onto the roof of the car. I think I even blacked out for a second or two, it was so bad. Worse, the windows were open an inch or two, and though not fully in the lake it was far enough out that several inches of freezing cold water filled the car.

  “Not high enough to drown me, but half my head was covered, my body was twisted and broken, and the cold water added stabbing sensations to the burning pain. My mother finally stopped screaming in agony at that point. I tried to speak, but absolutely nothing came out, I could barely breath as it was. That’s when I tried to tilt my head to look, I was terrified she was dead too and I was next. I had no doubt someone had seen and called nine one one, but I knew they’d never make it to save us.

  “I was a dead man desperately gulping in my last breaths. Fear, impotent anger, and impending death triggered my quickening.”

  I paused for a minute, “I used to be handsomer, and so sexy that women would faint at my feet, so my power made me uglier since I’m so nice.”

  She snorted, and then slapped my chest.

  I grinned, “Actually, I wasn’t all that different. I lost a five-pound beer gut, and I got this six pack which makes you swoon. One that I was never quite able to achieve on my own in the gym, but other than that nothing changed. I was healed of course, during the course of the quickening. There was no enemy to destroy, the drunk driver was long gone. When I finally turned my head, and I saw that my mother’s warm hazel eyes were empty and cold, I kind of lost it. It came too late to save them both.”

  She traced the aforementioned six pack lovingly with her fingertips, but otherwise didn’t interrupt or interject.

  I said, “The car came apart explosively in my anger, fear, and grief. You know how it is for the first few moments. My mind was suddenly a weapon, and scared angry people lash out mentally. Of course, I learned to control it that same day, it wasn’t hard to figure out how to put a safety on it so to speak, but the damage was done. They never did find the bodies, or half the car. That act scared me, and I kind of froze. The EMTs backed off, and the dick-less trio did everything wrong when they tried to talk me down, they’re lucky I’m a calm person.”

  She giggled, “I think it’s the Angelic Trio.”

  I grinned, even if I wasn’t quite feeling it yet after reliving that experience.

  “Really? I always get that confused.”

  She bit her lip, “You don’t have a clue how powerful you are, do you.”

  I said brilliantly, “Huh?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  She said, “You mentioned how other telekinetic supers are limited. They really aren’t, I don’t think. They just don’t have the power to burn to create plasma balls, or to make illusory lights. It takes much less telekinetic power to just TK punch someone, or squeeze them and slam them into the ground, doesn’t it?”

  I frowned, “I suppose. There are other pyro-kinetics though.”

  She snorted, “Not ones that shoot plasma, dear. Fire maybe. Think about it, plasma wielders create plasma from meta-energy directly. You create telekinetic power from your meta-energy. Telekinetic power is of this universe, dimension, whatever you want to call it. In other words, it takes a hell of a lot more telekinetic power to create a plasma ball than it would meta-energy. And you can shoot hundreds of them without breaking a sweat.”

  That was true enough, I’d never once ran out of energy, and I’d even tried a couple of times. Nor had I ever failed to lift something I wanted to lift.

  She shrugged, “Just saying. If you used your telekinetic power directly to fight, you’d end fights a lot faster. Even messing about with fake magical effects, I don’t know anyone who could beat you, outside of the White Witch, and I’m not even positive that’s true. Of course, it’s smart not to, it’s a layer of misdirection against getting yourself caught.”

  I frowned, was she saying I was a Titan? That seemed highly unlikely, I knew I was way above the average, even for S-class, but still. My range was pretty far as well, as long as I could see it I could grab it with my mind, perhaps not counting the sun and moon of course. But the idea that I could stand in the center of Chicago and let off a telekinetic explosion that would level the place was absolutely ridiculous. I mean, that’s what titans were, destroyers of cities, or at least they had the potential to do so. It was ridiculous.

  Wasn’t it?

  She started to kiss my chest softly, and then worked her way down my body. When she got to my cock, and took it into her warm wet mouth with a wanton moan of approval, I stopped thinking about anything else entirely…

  Thursday morning started early, as Sky woke me up at about five thirty. I knew she’d woken me because I’d recognized the voice which called me out of the depths of sleep, but my mind was still fuzzy.

  “What?” I asked.

  Sky said, “New quickening. A powerful SP-class with some kind of force control on top of the classic four. I’m not entirely sure, the reports are conflicting. The Trio are getting nowhere with it, and Calvin is down. The young woman is kicking their asses, in the vernacular, and has already left a lot of corpses behind.”

  Calvin… Bates, the fire asshole. Or as he liked to be called, Angelic Fire. The other two were Sal Broncho and James Levin, Angelic Warrior and Angelic Justice respectively.

  “Alright.”

  Corpses were never a good thing, but I wasn’t about to jump to conclusions on it either. Especially not if she hadn’t killed Calvin, and just put his ass down. She’s probably panicking.

  I kissed Amber awake and murmured a quick explanation, she just kissed my cheek and told me to call for help if the girl was a gravity manipulator. I snorted, and then teleported home to pull on my super suit, extremely glad we’d taken the time to shower after fun time before going to sleep.

  As soon as the HUD came online I knew where I had to go, thanks to Sky. I teleported that way and at about a thousand feet to take stock of things. It wasn’t the best place on the outskirts of Chicago, and a large building was on fire.

  Two white blurs kept trying to take down the young woman in the street. I could also see Calvin on the ground knocked out cold, my power could tell he was fine otherwise, sort of. There were two corpses in the street and based on the bullets my telekinesis could feel in their bodies and the guns next to their bodies it wasn’t hard to figure out what happened. There were four more corpses inside the building, similarly riddled with steel bullets with steel next to them in the shape of guns.

  It seemed clear, these men had tried to shoot the young woman, and the bullets had been sent straight back to the source. Calvin wasn’t dead, because his own power had taken him down, and somehow set the building on fire at the same time.

  “Momentum control? Or some kind of kinetic force redirection?” I mumbled curiously.

  Angelic Warrior swooped in hard and punched the floating woman, and he was immediately blasted back by the force of his own punch while she didn’t move. It was kind of stupid, but they probably figured every time she redirected that force she had to consume the same amount of meta-energy that they put into it. Eventually her shield would fail, unless she was more powerful than all three of them put together. It was a stupid gamble, even if the odds were on their side, did they even talk to her?
<
br />   I remembered my own quickening. They hadn’t been interested in talking at all until after they’d put suppression cuffs on me. They were damned lucky I’d been in shock and had let them.

  Sky said, “Unknown, but if it worked on fire it’s more complicated than simply kinetic force. Redirecting any kind of momentum is probably closer to the truth.”

  That was pretty cool. Enough hesitation, I was enjoying watching the Trio get their asses kicked by a newbie a little too much, but it couldn’t have been good for her frame of mind. I lowered down and could make her out much better once I reached a couple of hundred feet. She looked to be around twenty, and was in sexy red lingerie, which was only partially in view because of the torn tight hot pink t-shirt and her black mini-skirt which was barely hanging on by a thread.

  What the fuck was wrong with them? Control freaks.

  She had bright red hair so vivid that it could’ve only come from a Clairol box, brown eyes, and creamy fair skin. Her face had a severe beauty to it with sharp cheekbones, and she had bowed lips. Her body was curvaceous in a soft and perfect hourglass way, and the way her breasts looked a bit malformed I could tell she’d gone up at least a cup size, her bra didn’t fit right anymore. She was eighteen or nineteen at a guess.

  There were also tears on her face, and she looked terrified. She was also completely on the defensive as far as I could tell. I hadn’t seen her try to fly off or throw even one punch.

  I said loudly, “Enjoy your trip, assholes.”

  The other two assholes looked at me in shock as she did, and I muttered a few words and shot a golden light at all three. Only Angelic Fire had shields, and he was out for the count, so all three of them teleported out.

  I looked to the woman, “You alright?”

  She said fearfully, “Mythic? What happened to them?”

  “Nothing bad, I just sent them away.”

  She looked around nervously, as if worried they’d come back.

  I smiled, “Far away. It’ll take them some time to fly back from Dallas.”

  Her mouth dropped open.

  “They’re assholes anyway, any idea what you can do? It should be instinctive, but it might take a little time if you’re in shock.”

  She shook her head, and looked down, “I can fly.”

  I grinned, “Yes, you sure can. What’s your name?”

  She said, “Carolina. Aren’t you a bad guy?”

  I shrugged, “Some people think so, but I only take down supervillains, and I don’t attack people that just quickened and have already gone through enough. Do you feel stronger, faster, and tough?”

  She frowned, “I think so. I could see everything coming at me as if it were in slow motion. I sort of reverse it and send it back. I also flew through a wall and didn’t feel it.”

  Well, if she ever became a superhero, her name would no doubt be Karma.

  “What happened here, Carolina?”

  She said, “I work… worked here. The money is good, and it’s paying for my college. Unlike most graduates, I’ll have six figures in the bank when I’m done instead of owing that much to student loans.”

  I looked at the building again and understanding hit when I read the sign. She was an exotic dancer. To each their own, I wasn’t about to judge, it’d pay the bills and then some.

  She continued, “I had an… unruly customer tonight. Couldn’t keep his hands to himself and got a little rough. It happens. I felt shaken. Not important, except because of that I forgot my laptop in my locker, and I have a paper due tomorrow.”

  Huh, summer courses? It was June after all. Or maybe an online course.

  She bit her lip, “I went back to get it. I figured the boss would still be there counting out the night’s cash and closing. You know? I knew he wasn’t a great guy or anything, but I had no idea he was some kind of organized crime person. Not until I walked in on him and the two bouncers torturing someone about missing money from a drug deal.”

  She shivered.

  “They said I’d seen too much, and they were going to have a little fun before they killed me, it’d be a waste otherwise,” she said disgustedly, “I fought, and I got shot three times before it happened. After that they all panicked when I started to heal right before their eyes. They all pulled guns and started to shoot me, but their bullets shot them instead. Those other two guys over there must’ve been standing guard, and they opened up on me as I flew out of the wall in a panic. I didn’t know what to do, and the Angelic Trio showed up a few minutes later.”

  I nodded, “We need to get you to the center. They’ll teach you to manage your powers, and help you get your life back on track. Even help you figure out what to do next. Family?”

  She shuddered, “Not that I want to see. They’re down in Springfield. I had enough money to afford an apartment after my freshman year at State, so decided to stay and take some online courses.”

  I reached into the burning building. My telekinesis could feel things in a basic way, and computers were extremely obvious given what they were made out of. It might’ve already been burned, but if it was in a metal locker it might still be okay if the heat and fire hadn’t reached it yet. I found it and pulled out the whole bag it was in with a flash of light.

  “This yours?”

  She gaped, and then started to cry.

  That was a good thing, she was getting past the shock of it. I thought she was safe enough, as long as she didn’t attack or wasn’t attacked. The former didn’t seem likely, she obviously wasn’t the violent type, and her momentum redirect power was harmless unless I attacked her.

  Not that it was all that comfortable, I was a guy and crying women made me want to fix it, but it wasn’t a fixable thing. Not really. I just waited it out.

  She flew forward and I handed it to her.

  “Thank you, my life is on that thing.”

  I laughed.

  She shook her head, “What will I do now?”

  I said, “They’ll help you figure that out. There’re other dance clubs in the city. What happened tonight was horrible, but you have more options now, not less. You just need to be registered, and then go through an evaluation.”

  She nodded, “Alright, thank you, Mythic. I… why are you a vigilante?”

  “The law that forces heroes to expose themselves. I feel the need to help, but I have two younger sisters and a lot of cousins here in the city. It only takes one sadistic pissed off supervillain.”

  She frowned, “There’s a bill to repeal that I think.”

  I nodded, “A lot of supers don’t like it, only the ones with no family become legal superheroes and reveal themselves. That said, I doubt the bill is going to pass, the government won’t want to give up that edge.”

  That was probably pessimistic, but pessimism was the best and most realistic way to view the government. I wasn’t a pessimist about everyday people, like Carolina here.

  She blew out a breath, “Alright, I don’t know how to deal with anything that happened. People died because of me.”

  I said, “Your power is instant Karma, and the ultimate expression of self-defense with equal force. If they hadn’t been trying to kill you, they’d still be alive, like the idiotic Trio.”

  She shook her head. It’d take time for her to come to terms with it.

  “Lead the way,” she said in a daze, “I’ll follow you.”

  I didn’t even have to ask, as Sky brought up a flight path straight to the center on my HUD. I headed that way and Carolina followed me.

  She seemed to have a good grasp of her powers already, though flight wasn’t hard. After getting her to the center and settled in with a change of clothes and a counselor, I started the rest of my day.

  Chapter Fifteen

  No good deed goes unpunished. I became even more infamous that day for sending the moronic Trio all the way to Texas. The news was all over it, and the pundits were trying to decide if what I’d done should be considered assault or not. They were undecided, or at least
split in their opinions. Many agreed with me that they were asshat control freaks when it came to new supers.

  Maybe I went too far, but Carolina hadn’t deserved what they were doing.

  Amber looked amazing as usual, in a pair of painted on jeans that made her ass look so good it should’ve been illegal. She also had on a clingy yellow t-shirt. I was dressed similarly with casual jeans and gray pullover collared light shirt. My family didn’t get dressed up for a family dinner night.

  “Hey beautiful. Good day?”

  Pathetic or not, I’d missed her as I took care of some business related stuff and let her focus on her own things. It was a good thing of course, we spent a lot of time together, but our jobs and interests carried us in other directions, which was a good balance. I also wasn’t about to become some pathetic clingy asshole or control freak just because I’d missed her.

  Still, I was fairly sure she felt the same, if the passion of our greeting kiss was any indication. As usual I already wanted to take her, but the anticipation build-up of our night together was half the fun.

  Amber smiled, “Very good. Angel and I got started on Serina’s A.I. and we made a little progress on the project that will not be named.”

  “Government crap?”

  She nodded.

  “Where’s Angel?” I asked curiously. It was usually her that greeted me when I showed up at Amber’s.

  Angel said out of my subcutaneous communicator and the house speakers, “Still at the office. Since I don’t have to cook tonight, I decided to work late.”

  Maybe, but she obviously had her attention on the house too.

  Amber said, “When’s the next time you’re going up, I could use a favor.”

  I tilted my head, “Got a satellite to put in orbit?”