Hero Super

The sleeve on Calvin’s finger roared to life and shot forwards.

An explosion resounded from his hand and rattled the dirt off of the walls of the alleyway. A bright and blinding flash, a sharp and deadly whistle, and a rubbery and disappointing thud came almost instantaneously, one after the other.

And then, nothing.

Calvin’s eyes widened as his eyes re-adjusted.

The blue-haired scrapper, the largest of the three in front of him that made for the best target for an amateur gunman, stared back towards him with an unreadable expression. She stood tall, like an immovable vanguard, unperturbed by what just happened.

“Shit! Gun!” Red shouted, quickly getting behind Blue’s giant body. He reached over to Green and dragged her into 'cover’ as well. “Green!”

A few seconds later, their heads peeked out of the side of their human shield, staring alertly at Calvin’s every movement. It took a moment before they realized that it was a one-shot, judging from Calvin’s disbelief and the fact that he wasn’t 'reloading’ or even pointing his finger at them.

“What the hell…” Calvin couldn’t help but mutter in non-understanding.

“Fatso?” Red came out from behind her and observed her up and down. There was no injury, no bullet wound— there wasn’t even an extra dent on her scrappy armour. “You still there?”

A second of silence later, Green looked back towards Calvin and started muttering to herself, “Oh no…”

Red frowned and waved his hand in front of her face and poked her side.

Then, like a statue teetering on the edge of a pedestal, the woman fell over and collapsed on the ground. Sprawled and shaking, she was silently wriggling for a moment before tears, snot, vomit, and urine started coming out of each appropriate orifice, accompanied soon after by the creepy sound of laughter, screams, and manic muttering.

Calvin’s eyes narrowed, 'Why is she like that? Is that her power or something?’

“No! No, no no!” Green crouched and started holding her head in a panic. “I don’t want to see the machine! My soul is mine! They can’t take it away!”

“Fuck!” Red shouted and stomped, kicking Blue in the stomach repeatedly while saying the same curse word over and over.

'What are they doing?’ Calvin was briefly bewildered at their reaction before realizing it was the best time to attack.

He dashed towards them, using [Jumper] to quicken his speed and take them by surprise.

Unfortunately for him, Red noticed him and turned to glare at him with bloodshot eyes. He swung his hand forcefully towards him, his arm glowed red before expelling a baseball-sized glowing projectile flying straight towards Calvin.

He sidestepped to dodge, but the projectile exploded in mid-air right next to him. He flew to the side, crashing against a wall without breaking it.

“Ugh,” Calvin grunted, feeling the impact. 'I need to practice using [Vigilant Aegis] more. I need to be quicker.’

“You fucking asshole! Now we gotta get another Blue! Do you have any idea how annoying it is finding a fucker as big as her?! Fucking impossible! You goddamn piece of shit!” Red shouted angrily while throwing another explosion towards him.

Calvin dodged quicker, farther, and higher this time, jumping diagonally to dodge the explosion’s heat, “Ask your mom, then.”

“Go fuck yourself!” He shouted while throwing another explosion towards Calvin.

Calvin watched the glowing ball fly towards him, pulling on his power as it was midway on its path to summon a pebble. As it exploded, he started dashing towards Red again, readying his pebble just in case he threw another ball.

'Whatever that bullshit power was, she’s down… so it kinda worked. I guess.’ He thought. A fight against two people felt more manageable than three, which was his goal.

“Shit! Get that bawlin’ fatso out of here, Green!” Red commanded as he lobbed another couple of explosions towards the ever-nearing Calvin.

“No, no, no…” Green was still catatonic, rocking on the ground and muttering to herself.

“Fuckin’—” Red swung both arms as soon as Calvin got too close, making an explosion right in front of him that Calvin wasn’t prepared for. “Fuck off!”

“Damn!” Calvin cursed as he flew backwards, barely activating his aegis when Red’s arm exploded.

The distance gained was reset, unfortunately. But Red didn’t fare out of the explosion as well as he did.

“I can’t, I don’t want to— ugh,” a slap rang out, shaking Green out of her panic.

“Get your shit together! Get the fat fuck out of here and help me!”

“I—,” she looked up at Red, whose arms were charred and half burnt from his own explosion, “Y— yes!”

Blue, who was still having some sort of mental breakdown on the ground, started getting fully wrapped in a cocoon of moss that sprouted from the muck underneath her. Vines made of the same greenery popped out of the walls of the entrapment and dragged her outside.

'This cage might disappear if I take her out,’ Calvin thought as he watched with scrutiny. 'Red’s explosions are annoying, but he can’t catch me. Her vines are faster… and tricky,’ He reprioritized his targets. 'I can’t just keep running in either… but the alley’s too small, what can I—’

His train of thought was interrupted by another couple of explosions heading his way. He dodged one and made the other explode from a distance, all the while trying to find a way to get closer without being exploded.

'It’s too narrow, there’s no place to take cover— Oh, right, I have that,’ he pulled on a particular power as soon as he remembered he had it.

Instantly, the entire place became the spitting image of Villainopolis’ eternal night sky. Blackness covered every inch imaginable, except for the two scrappers who stood like two stains in a perfect Canvas.

“Wha—black?!” Green shouted, closing her eyes and crouching. “I can’t see!”

“What’s happening? What did you do?!” Red looked around in a panic, flinging explosions in random directions. “Where are you, you fuck?!”

Calvin calmly and quietly made his way towards them, trying his best to move out of the way of any random explosion that went towards his general direction. It was slower than rushing in, but obviously safer.

As Calvin neared, Red stopped throwing around explosions and started looking around more. Sweat started dripping down his forehead and his breathing subtly became heavier than before.

'He’s tired,’ he thought while sneaking. “Fuck!”

Calvin jumped away again as a wave of smaller-sized pellets of explosion was thrown towards him.

Red heard his swear and grinned, making both of his arms glow tiny balls of explosion before swinging them like helicopter blades towards Calvin’s general direction.

He jumped and dodged upwards, the smaller explosions weren’t as hot as the bigger ones, but they had more impact in them. So much more that he felt himself being thrown around slightly with each one exploding nearby.

'Change of strategy,’ he thought, summoning pebbles in the air to use as platforms and move up and away from the man’s spraying.

“Green,” Red suddenly turned to his panicking ally, “cover everything with your shit.”

“Wh—what?” Green turned to him, confused.

He grabbed her by the armour and pulled her up, “Cover every-fucking-thing with your stupid fucking moss!”

“I— okay!” She raised her hands in a panic and grunted.

In nearly an instant, every surface of the alleyway, including the once-green blockade of moss on each end, was covered in a thin layer of greenery. Calvin’s figure was immediately revealed; a black little spot running in mid-air.

“Oh come on,” he cursed, using [Jumper] to dash straight towards them in panic.

“No, you don’t,” Red pulled his arm back to throw an explosion towards him, only for his arm to remain immovable from behind. “What?!”

He turned to see floating pebbles around his wrist, chaining him in place.

“Green!” Red shouted.

Calvin only saw green, the colour, not the person, before a mushy impact resounded. He bounced back, dizzy and dazed, but still had the clarity of mind to back off from whatever it was that popped out.

“What the hell was that?” He groaned, looking forwards until his eyes regained focus. It was a tiny wall of moss. 'That felt like cement. Another bullshit power.’

The moss came down and revealed the two, one smugly looking at him with bloodshot eyes, and the other looking nervously as if she did something wrong.

“Fucking rocks, huh? So that’s how you were doing it?” He grinned at his advantage.

'I probably shouldn’t use the pebbles too much here. At least, not in costume,’ Calvin cursed at his eternal enemy, hindsight, for doing what it does best— reminding him too late. “That’s how I was doing it with your mom too.”

“That’s not— that doesn’t even make any fucking sense.”

“I know. I’m trying.”

“Well, try eating this, you fucking comedian fuck.”

He swung both his arms like before, summoning multitudinous amounts of small pellets.

Calvin was about to jump and dodge it like before, but, unlike what he expected, the pellets started flying out in random patterns. Like bugs around a streetlight, they circled and hovered around without directly heading towards him, exploding in random non-consecutive patterns that made dodging a headache.

“Gah!” He grunted as a shockwave from his side threw him directly into the explosion of a different pellet which, in turn, slammed him against a wall.

“Got ya!” Red’s laughter irritated his ears. “Grab him!”

“This is for Blue!” Green shouted a small warcry from below.

Hearing the unsettling sound of moss break and crackle as it forcibly grew around him, Calvin used [Jumper] full force in an attempt to quickly get away from the wall. Some of the moss disintegrated, but he still had to make an effort to tear himself out of the more persistent vines.

'Strong. And annoying,’ he noted in his head, 'but it feels off. Like she never used it before…’

“Explode and die you fuck!” The man was about to fly from how fast he was swinging his arms and throwing explosions.

“Do you know any other curse words?” He quipped, trying to taunt him.

Red’s eyelids twitched, “Eat shit!”

“There we go,” Calvin clapped sarcastically before dodging a stray vine from the side. “Woah.”

Getting close was a hard option, so he opted for a simpler one— waiting for them to tire out and make an opening. Sadly, he himself forgot he was about to get just as tired as they were.

Inevitably, the constant barrage of whips and explosions was too much to keep up with. A stray mossy vine had reached out from the ceiling and wrapped around his waist. He couldn’t even blink before it pulled him up against the ceiling and strapped his limbs and joints with the thickest vines available.

“Damn!” He tried using [Jumper] like before but the woman had learned her lesson and spared no expense using vines instead to wrap him up.

Red cackled from below, drenched in sweat and shaking in fatigue, “Haah… try dodging… this!”

A dangerous light shone as he held both hands on his shoulder like he was about to shotput. With a small run-up, a basketball-sized projectile appeared in his hand and was subsequently lobbed towards Calvin who was trying desperately to escape.

“Wha—” Calvin’s eyes widened in surprise before a flash blinded his eyes.

A thunderous boom pealed through the entire alleyway, shaking off the previous layer of moss and turning everything black once more. Fire and light spread like ink before immediately being replaced by smoke and embers that lingered in mid-air.

“Final-fucking-ly!” Red collapsed on the ground, panting and grinning.

Green was similarly lying on the ground, smiling with contentment, before a pale shadow loomed over her in realization, “Oh no… he’s dead?! You killed him?!”

“Fuck yeah,” he raised his hand in celebration.

“Boss said to get a sacrifice! We don’t have a sacrifice!”

“Shit,” he sat up, looking around on the ground, “Everything’s still black. Fucker’s still here, just in pieces. We just need to put him back together and they won’t give a fuck. Power’s still in him.”

Green, unconvinced, startled pulling at her hair and biting her lip to bleeding, “But they said alive! Sacrifices need to be alive! We’re done!”

While the two were busy arguing against each other below, Calvin was busy muffling his coughs inside the billowed cloud of smoke. He grit his teeth, not in pain, but in anger and fatigue that’s been building up inside since he entered this hellhole.

Despite the explosion, the damage to him was negligible. Partly due to [Vigilant Aegis] using up at least three months’ worth of defence, but mostly because of something peculiar.

'Something blocked it,’ Calvin could vividly remember a trash can suddenly appearing in front of the projectile.

It did little to block the blast, and probably even made it worse with shrapnel, but it made it explode prematurely. Far enough for Calvin to make a small shield of pebbles to block most of the blast.

His befuddlement was instantly replaced by wrath as he heard the two arguing below him.

“I’m gonna kill him,” he muttered, his jaw tightening involuntarily the more he heard the scrappers below him continue talking about his unfortunate demise and his current state of 'dismemberment’. 'I need to get this shit off of me first.’

“—it’s still early, we can find some other fucker to catch. Maybe the others caught one already! We’ll be fine.”

“Y—yeah! We’ll be okay…”

“Also, look, they probably haven’t fucking tried it yet, okay? So I don’t see why we can’t. It’s still the same fucking guy, right? Just, in pieces. So we put everything in the machine, and maybe the power might come out.”

“What if it comes out in pieces?” Green asked, teary-eyed.

“Maybe we can get some vials, whatever. We’ll make quota.”

'Vials?’ Calvin almost paused his escape attempt after hearing that word. 'No way it’s that power-draining machine shit again. Do they have one too? Is it part of a kidnapper’s beginner toolkit? Fucking hell…’

Calvin shivered, remembering the machine from his previous kidnappings. A glass tube, green goo, and complex machinery that looks more like magic than tech. He remembered it vividly, both what it looked like and what it did.

'It makes sense, why they have so many supers… but I thought they couldn’t get the powers injected? Dox said she couldn’t work out how?’ He paused his train of thought as the smoke started clearing again. 'Escape first, think later.’

“Holy fucking— he’s still alive,” Red grinned, gesturing towards Calvin.

Calvin’s body tensed up as he heard those words, immediately doubling his efforts to tear off the moss while the green-haired woman was still muttering to herself.

“Green!” Red shouted to his co-scrapper. “He’s alive!”

“Alive?” Green looked at him confused before following his finger. “Alive! You’re alive! He’s alive! Thank you— ow!”

“He’s escaping you dumb fuck. Stop him!”

“Ah!” She held her shaky hands out and started controlling the moss again.

“Fuck!” Calvin cursed, only having one of his arms free after all that, and was now about to be bound again. 'I should’ve brought a goddamn knife. Why didn’t I bring a knife?! I got a useless baton and a shitty ass golden wrench and nothing else but boxes and clothes—’ “Wait. Knife.”

Reaching into his [Ear Pocket Locket] using his will, he locked onto a particular cardboard box he left inside.

A second later, a steak knife appeared in his free hand.

'Thank you, Lonnie,’ he thought, immediately slicing through the moss like it was steak.

The plant didn’t seem to regrow this time, or he didn’t give it a chance to, as he sliced himself out as fast as possible before using [Jumper] to get away from the ceiling.

'I’m really going to kill them this tim—’ “What are they doing?”

Green was down on the ground, holding her head in pain, while Red was looking around in a panic and making his arm glow.

Calvin summoned a pebble in mid-air and changed direction, landing on a fire escape to observe.

“Who the fuck is there?!” Red was shouting, in the alleyways. “Show your-fucking-self you fuck!”

'Someone else is here?’ Calvin’s eyes narrowed, trying to see where Red was looking towards. 'Why is it so dark— oh, right.’

He used [Colour Control] and removed the blackness in the alleyway. There was no one there.

Not wasting time being confused, he dashed down while Red was distracted and kicked the back of his head so hard that he saw a flash of the Super Absorb screen before his body was sent flying from the force.

Super Absorb

Super Power: Medullary Detonation detected. Absorb?

Yes No

'One fucker down. Next—’, he ignored the sick in his stomach and quickly turned to Green. “Or not?”

She was down on the ground, bleeding in the nose and frothing in the mouth. Her eyes were stagnant, looking dazedly at the sky like she was seeing stars— figuratively.

Calvin stepped closer and winced. There was a visible dent on her face like someone hit her with a brick or a piece of metal.

'Someone helped me?’ He became more alert now that he was sure they weren’t the only ones in the alleyway.

He glanced around, only seeing the same scenery as when he came in, curiously spotless(relatively) without a crater on the cement or a crack in the brick. He didn’t have time to wonder about that, though, as the moss enclosure started to crumble into nothingness, darkening the surroundings with the lightless sky.

'KZ. Get to Kingdom,’ he prioritized escaping rather than finding whoever it was that helped him. 'Actually, I wonder if I can get that moss power—’ “Shit.”

The walls of moss were fully gone, and the scenery behind was free to reveal itself to him. An army of Scrappers is looking towards him with a mix of shock and greed.

It was hard to count how many there were, mainly because a lot of them seemed to be the same person— likely a duplicating superpower— but there were too many.

And, if Robbie was telling the truth, every single one was a super.

Most of them started muttering, pointing towards Red and Green before looking back at him with an unmistakable gleam in their eyes.

'I need to get a running superpower or something, this is getting ridiculous,’ he groaned, already feeling the future migraine he’s going to get from the inevitable [Chronic Fatigue] debuff.

“My, my, what an audience we have tonight,” a voice, coming from a speaker, caught the attention of everyone including Calvin.

A 'hole’ appeared in mid-air, like a swirling puddle of darkness that was somehow blacker than the already black sky. Multi-coloured spotlights suddenly shone down from the hole, followed by the unmistakably ear-shredding sound of a microphone experiencing feedback.

“Oops, sorry about that folks. Ahem, let’s get another take— ah!” A muffled thud came followed by a colourful figure falling down from the hole.

The figure flipped his body at the last second of the fall, landing on his feet and then presenting himself with both hands in the air like a gymnast would. He spun around, showing himself and his clothes to everyone.

With a top hat, a purple suit, and a royal-blue cape, the person that came down with the grace of a dying racoon could take a run against Calvin’s own gaudy costume— pre-[Colour Control], of course. His bright purple eyes gleamed as he smiled at everyone, winking here and there with an audible sound effect coming from the baton-slash-mic he held in one hand.

“Sorry for that entrance, folks. My dear and beloved partner couldn’t help herself and pushed me down so that she could make her own entr—”

Another person fell, this time with a heavy crash that cracked the concrete. A cloud of dust and most rose up from the impact, obfuscating the figure of the person before a cyan glow shone through the smoke. Machine-like whirring and electronic humming started coming out from the person, followed by the sound of fans blowing air and clearing the dust from the view.

A coughing showman and a cybernetically enhanced woman.

'Villains,’ Calvin knew immediately what they were.

Not gangsters, like the three colour tones he’d been fighting since earlier. Not mafia, like Robbie or Sean. Proper villains. Ones that go outside of Villainopolis. Ones that fight in daylight and in the middle of the city.

Ones that kill heroes.

“That was very rude, Tech,” the man complained to her with a pout.

“You’re too slow, dweeb,” she rolled her eyes that glowed a creepy blue light.

“There goes my entrance,” he grumbled.

“They’re Empress’ men,” whispers rang out from the crowd of Scrappers.

Each and every one of them started looking around, unsure of what to do now that there were two villains in front of them. The two were arguing with each other in hushed whispers, but none of the scrappers dared move despite them looking like they were distracted.

They muttered amongst themselves, quiet inaudibly from where Calvin was standing, but he could still make out a few keywords— 'run’, 'report’, and 'boss’.

'Are they that strong?’ Calvin wondered.

Sooner than he expected, his question would have an answer.

“Run!” One of the scrappers shouted, turning around to make a break for it.

“Now now, audience,” the 'dweeb’ tutted, raising his hand in the air.

Snap

The world stilled. The scrappers, still on their 'forward march’, seemed like they paused in mid-air.

An enormous power suddenly bore down on Calvin, like a hand or a palm holding him in place and keeping everything immobile. His breathing stilled, his heart noticeably quietened, and even the sweat dripping down his back was frozen in time from the display of power right in front of him.

“Let’s not be hasty, shall we?” He smirked, twirling his staff and walking to the Scrappers.

'What the fuck is this— calm down, think,’ he forcefully cooled his thoughts and started trying to move anything he could. 'Can’t move, can’t even breathe— but it doesn’t feel like I’m running out of air. I’m also still conscious, so brain activity is still running— I wonder…’

He found a trashcan in his frozen field of view and outside their fields of view. With a thought, he mentally held the 'whitestuff’ that represented [Colour Control] and manipulated it, turning the trashcan a shade darker.

'Power’s still work,’ he thought, thankful that it did.

He was about to start another experiment in a bid to escape his immobility when the pressure suddenly disappeared. In its place appeared a familiar dose of migraine, drilling into his head alongside its best friend, nausea.

'Oh yeah, I have this,’ he thought, both thanking and cursing the weird power-negating physiology he has. 'I can run away anytime now.’

Not that he would, since that was basically broadcasting to the literal 'villain’ that his overpowered superpower was ineffective on him. Best case, he was killed. Worst case, experimented. As per usual.

“Now, that’s what I like, the sound of an astounded crowd,” the man continued, clapping and spinning slowly to look at every person he froze. He suddenly paused, seeing Calvin similarly frozen, “Oops. Sorry, my guy. Or gal? Whichever one you are, I apologize. Please bear with it while we take care of things here, okay?”

Calvin wanted to gulp, to breathe, to blink, but he forced himself to stand as still as possible while the man’s attention was on him.

“Just get on with it,” Tech nudged the man with her metal arm.

“Haah…” he sighed, shaking his head, “Hi everyone. I’m Showstopper, this is Techstop. We’re taking you all to the dungeon. Whatever… entrance was ruined from the start. Do what you wanna do, party pooper.”

“Good,” Techstop let out a chuckle before raising her arm in the air.

The sound of hissing hydraulics filled the air as her arm started expanding and opening slots all around its circumference. Dangerous-looking darts loaded themselves on the slots, accompanied by whirring and gurgling liquid, before suddenly disappearing a second later.

Short, sharp, and buzzy sounds of whistling projectiles came from all around as darts started flying towards every scrapper in the vicinity.

Calvin started focusing up, readying the aegis in the likely event he was similarly targeted. Luckily, he wasn’t.

“Oh, I fucking love this part,” Techstop muttered, her anticipation showing through the slight giggle in her voice. “Thunder.”

As soon as the word left her mouth, a sharp click rang out almost like a wave through the scrappers.

“Lightning!”

And then, as she exclaimed, lightning.

Static electricity surrounded every scrapper hit by the dart, flashes of white roots rising in and out of their skin, hair, and armour were unmistakable— they were being tased. Yet they couldn’t move, wiggle, or breathe. Couldn’t even scream if they wanted to.

Pure, unadulterated, nightmare.

'Holy fuck,’ Calvin once again forced himself not to gulp as he watched the torture happening right in front of them. 'I mean, they deserve it, but still…’

“Teach said he wanted them alive, Tech. Alive,” Showstopper used his baton to bonk her chrome head.

“I know, I know,” she nodded, sounding disappointed. “Let them go, I’ll haul them in.”

“Right,” he nodded. “Show’s over.”

Without fanfare, every single Scrapper around them fell to the ground. Groans and grunts rang out all around; the duplicates disappeared into thin air and revealed the few handful of Scrappers that were actually chasing Calvin.

“Good,” Techstop nodded, grabbing another piece of tech from her body modification and throwing it to the ground in front of her.

The metal expanded and formed into a circle, spreading a small holographic film on top. She laid her hand on the film and smacked it, making it bounce back exaggeratedly.

“No need to see that, spectator,” Showstopper grabbed Calvin’s attention with his baton.

Calvin stopped tensing up, realizing he was still pretending to be frozen, “I— uh.”

“First off, I have to say,” he looked him up and down and snapped, “amazing outfit. I love it. Simple, sleek, monochrome. Quiet, efficient, and most importantly, subtle. You’re very much not an eyesore beside me, unlike a certain robot.”

“I heard that!” Tech shouted while she was carrying ten Scrappers on her shoulders. “I’ll fry your face off!”

“You know you can’t do that,” he smirked. “I’m no boor, I won’t steal your getup. I’ll use it as inspiration, so don’t you worry.”

Calvin’s brows curled, “Uh… thanks?”

“I know,” he nodded, “So, old visitor or new? I haven’t seen you anywhere before, and trust me, I’ll see you if I’ve seen you. Who are you?”

“Just a visitor,” Calvin dodged his question, “I need to get to KZ.”

“Well, you’re in luck, visitor,” he winked, “It’s over that direction, just relax and walk, it’s safe and no one’s chasing you anymore. Actually, you got a watch? You can get one at the gates if you don’t. It’s not going to be amazing, but it’ll point you around and where you need to go.”

“I’ll do that, then,” he nodded, itching to get out of this situation.

“Hmmm… secretive type, I like it. Here,” he took out a badge from his coat and offered it to Calvin.

He gingerly took the badge, scrutinizing it briefly in confusion. It was in the shape of a shield, with a painting of a castle in the middle and a golden letter 'E’ in front.

“If you ever want to join the Kingdom, you can show that at the front desk. Should give you an edge.”

“Thanks,” he nodded, pocketing the badge. He’d ditch it later, just in case it has some sort of tracker. “I’ll… I should go.”

“Stay safe, visitor,” he grinned and patted Calvin’s shoulder as he turned around.

Calvin started walking away, his steps forcefully steadied against the anxiety in his chest. Despite the lack of stamina, he was itching to run, or even use [Jumper], just to get away as fast as possible.

It turns out, Showstopper was telling the truth.

It wasn’t just safe, it was guarded. There were patrols walking around after walking a few alleyways, some even approached to help him, either with directions, food, or medical supplies. He’d politely refused everything except the prior, asking for the direction of KZ.

'I should get there first before anything else,’ he thought while walking and eating a granola bar, 'I feel like I’m forgetting something?’

He scratched his chin, trying to think, before eventually giving up. 'I’ll remember it later.’

A few streets later, he arrived in front of a pair of giant metal gates— less medieval looking than he expected— sitting in the middle of fortified apartment buildings that acted like the walls of a castle.

'Kingdom,’ he read the sign on the archway in front of the gates, written in neon signs and metal railings. 'Finally.’

“Hey!” A familiar voice caught his attention, coming from the gates. “You made it!”

Calvin looked down and felt angry, “Robbie.”

“Sean’s calling for help, you were taking too long that—”, he paused looking behind Calvin in confusion, “—where’s Chief?”

“Chief?” His eyes narrowed for a moment before the gears in his head clicked. “Ah, fuck.”