13

Koi looked down at the paper on Ares’ desk. It was not something she wanted to see. Ok that was something of a lie, she didn’t care about the paper, what she cared about was that her name was on it. There were three other names on the paper as well, only one of which she actually recognized. Bloody hell she knew Ares had been up to something when he had called her in, but she didn’t want to have to deal with this kind of bullshit.

“Why me Sir?”

“Because you kind of suck as a superhero.”

“What?”

“Don’t get me wrong, you’ve got the powers, and have the fighting skills, but that doesn’t get you much farther than street level. You’ll never make it to national status like you currently are.”

“And how does, this, change that?”

“You need to be able to work in a team, this is the first step.”

“But they’re kids?”

“Would you prefer we put you on a team your age?”

“No Sir.”

“Good, teach these kids, bail them out if they get into trouble, learn to lead them. And Congratulations on you promotion, you are now a youth team supervisor.”

“Why is Keanan on the team?”

“You would not believe how good he is at pestering his way into something. I’m almost inclined to believe his mother let him run away so we could raise him for her.”

“So you’re giving him to me?”

“Alecia made him my problem, and she’s not here. But you’re a friend of hers and that’s good enough for me.”

“There are international laws against that sir. I think it qualifies as a war crime.”

“I don’t see any war in this office, do you?”

“No sir.”

“Good now enjoy your promotion, with your new charges. Somewhere not here.”

---

Koi found her new charges waiting in the same conference room she had taken Keanan to his first day here. There were three of them. At the back of the room was Keanan, in his elemental form, it really was quite pretty. According to her files his codename was Shatter, an odd name for someone so solid. The other two she had never seen or heard of before. The other boy in the room, who was sixteen was covered in what looked like a firefighter suit, respirator included. She didn’t know his name, but the files said his codename was Cinder. Appropriate considering his powers and personality. The girl was twelve, and was going for the creepy child look hard. Black outfit with lots of lace, very heavy makeup making her skin look white. She even had a black umbrella with lace around the edges. As was also reading At the Mountains of Madness, for good measure. Her codename was Gaslight, and her powers were described as localized progressive genius loci. Genius Loci type powers being insanely rare Koi started suspecting there was something up with this team.

“Hey guys, my codename is Koi, and I have been put in charge of this new team. Do any of you know each other?”

“No.”

“Negatory.”

“I know you.”

“Ok, then first thing is introductions and a brief description of our powers. As I said my name is Koi, and I am really fast, fairly strong, and generally resistant to most things. Who want to go next.”

“I do.”

“Ok, go.”

“My name is Shatter. I’m strong, can fly and really resistant to everything especially heat. Also my brain is distributed and I can put myself back together. And I can learn magic, I don’t really know any yet, but I’m working on it.”

“Ok, next?”

“I’m Cinder, I make things go BOOM. Also some other stuff, but mostly BOOM.”

“Really, because I’m looking at your power description and boom seems like the most basic application of your powers.”

“They got me in some boring ass chemistry classes, it’s mostly gibberish to me.”

“Ok, do try to learn somethings, your abilities are insanely versatile if applied right.”

“Yes mom.”

“That just leaves you Gaslight.”

“Fine, my name is Gaslight, I make places scary.”

“Lame.”

“Cinder, I have her file, you really don’t want to challenge her on that.”

“You’re really stuffy you know that?”

“A demonstration might be in order. Let everyone get a hang of each others powers. If you really think Gaslight’s powers are lame?”

“Is that a challenge fishy?”

“Only if Gaslight is willing.”

“Sounds fun, I’ll do it.”

---

Koi, Shatter, and Gaslight watched a warehouse from the roof of the building across from it. The whole area was set up for training by the league. So civilians weren’t an issue. Gaslight was sitting with her legs dangling over the edge and was singing a lullaby in latin. The windows rather suddenly were all blown out, shortly followed by smoke, then open flames. Cinder ran out of the burring warehouse screaming.  Gaslight looked up at Koi with a satisfied smile.

“See I told you I could do it in under half an hour.”

“I never doubted you, how did he do?”

“He’s an idiot, proper application of his powers and he could have no sold me for at least forty-five minutes.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Instead he blew up the building.”

“I saw that.”

“It was an uncontrolled blast, useless for any situation were civilians are a concern.”

“Best use of his powers?”

“Area denial, removing escape routes, trapping enemies.”

“Best use of his powers in relation to yours?”

“Funnel them into my territory and keep them there.”

Gaslight was living up to her secondary team rating. The rating that describes a persons role on a team. Gaslight was a mastermind, they plan, and direct battle strategies. Her file stated that she should be trained in a team leadership role. Which was good, as a brick type brawler Koi wasn’t cut out for that kind of job. Shatter was also a brawler, but had a potential artillery rating. Cinder was a demo type lancer. His file stated he had the potential for a whole lot more, but didn’t have the right attitude. On another note, Shatter had a third rating of heart, something she should be aware of, but not tell anyone else about. Having someone with the rating of heart on the team was a double edged sword of sorts, especially if they were a front line fighter.

“Um, Cinder looks really freaked out.”

“Good point Shatter, why don’t you go help calm him down.”

Koi and Gaslight watched Shatter as he went over the edge of the building and descended to the ground. Gaslight looked over at Koi.

“He has a heart rating doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, I’m not suppose to tell you that.”

“I already basically knew. Besides it’s good, Cinder needs someone to temper him.”

“Scaring the shit out of him was a bit heavy handed, on our part.”

“When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Besides he needed a little humility.”

“I wonder how long you’re going to keep thinking that, being a team leader can get to a person.”

“I thought you were in charge?”

“I’m delegating, it’s a perk of authority. My job is to support you, hit things, and bail you guys out if you get into too much trouble.”

“So comforting.”

“Team leader, remember. You get to know the truth of things, I’ll save the coddling for the boys.”

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