The police station was in ruins, and the only thing in worse shape was everyone's egos.
Two felons and a supervillain had escaped in a building filled with law enforcement personnel. Awkward looks were exchanged. They didn't know who to blame. Quite hard to blame the criminals when they weren't around.
While the officers got to work moving the rubble, they finally got an intel update.
Kyle came running, running so fast it was hard for him to stop. He tripped on a rock about half a street down, but he was so fast he had no choice but to stick the landing. With a slight flip and a little jump, he came to a skidding halt.
He took two wobbly steps and hunched over, sweaty and somehow cold at the same time. The soles of his shoes were burnt out, as were the edges of his pants. Tentatively, Fenton went up to him and tried to get him to sit down.
"Can't sit or else I won't be able to get up," Kyle groaned. "Don't mind me. Just the messenger, and base needs you guys closer to the water."
Kyle started explaining positions and vantage points, evacuation areas, med camps in distress. Every time he started a sentence, he had to slow down because he was talking too fast for anyone to keep up.
"Theresabunch of people ontop of uhhhh fallenoverskyscrapernear uhhh Kiruna," Kyle said in one breath. "Casey is there."
"Ohmigod! I need to go save him," Harmonia announced.
"Harmonia, I don't think that's a good idea right now," Fenton said. "He was assigned to go there and—"
"LEVI! I suddenly have like a totally super secret mission! Tell Fenton he's wrong."
Levi glanced at Harmonia, at Fenton, then at Kyle. He walked over to Kyle, handed him his mug of coffee, and Kyle, instead of drinking it, threw it in his face.
"Thanks, man, I'm so cold," Kyle said.
Levi grimaced.
"Yeah, sure, go get him, Harmonia," Levi said.
Harmonia immediately ran off into the city, and everyone on the team was dumbfounded at Levi's odd decision.
"Why'd you let her go? What secret mission is she on, anyway?" Ace asked.
"Her mission is to get the fuck away from me as soon as possible. If she wants to be with someone she loves during this noise, let her be," Levi said.
While Levi calculated his group's next move, Kyle prepared another message he needed to send. He took off his shoes, the bottoms burnt off, then the socks, hanging on by a thread. He took off his military-grade backpack and pulled out a pair of socks and shoes. He began to put the socks on and then decided against them.
They would burn off anyway.
So he put his shoes on, made sure to tie them just right, and listened to the tail end of Levi's conversation.
"In a way, I'm jealous of her. She gets to run off to be with people she's worried about, and I have to stay here, worried about my wife," Levi said.
Kyle gripped the backpack to his chest and thought of his brother.
"When I'm done, I'll check up on her. I'll report back."
"Thanks," Levi replied.
Kyle ran off, into the city to get to his next intel station.
When Kyle ran, it started as a light jog, and then his eyes turned a dark orange glow. The entire world around him slowed as he sped. He always wondered while running if his ability was to go faster, or if it was him making the world move slower.
He told himself that it didn't matter as long as he got to where he was going on time.
He zipped through the streets, narrowly dodging exploding debris from bombs. He soared over rooftops, his speed giving him huge arcs. While running north toward the Kiruna district, he passed a familiar golden dot.
Mary Jane.
Her bright hair stood out against the sea of concrete grey and black, and Kyle had a small smile.
He could give Levi good news.
He was tired of giving people nothing but bad news all night.
Mary Jane, Annie, and Julia froze when an orange blur went past them.
"NicetoseeyouagainJane," Kyle said.
They were stunned and confused by the drive-by greeting, Julia the most. Her eyes were squeezed shut, teeth gritted, and tears welled at the corners of her eyes.
"What was that?" Annie asked.
"I... think it was a person. I think he said my name," Mary Jane replied.
"Ohmigod, there are now orange ghosts along with aliens," Julia said.
"Jules, don't be silly. We gotta go and introduce Janey to Jimmy."
Julia's eyes brightened at the very mention of Jimmy.
The three young ladies walked in the dark, on the side where the street lights were turned off, to stay under the cover of night. They were all still wearing their clothes from the yacht party. Sweaters here, shorts and bikini tops there, everyone unprepared for the sudden drop in weather.
"You're gonna love Jim-Jam! He's soooooo nice," Julia squealed.
"I mean sure, I guess," Mary Jane grumbled.
Annie raised her eyebrows at Mary Jane's lack of enthusiasm and connected the dots.
"Don't tell me you're jealous," Annie asked.
"NO! No way," Julia laughed.
"I am not jealous," Mary Jane scoffed.
She placed her hand on her face, her pretty nails decorating her cheek, as if it were a mask to cover her embarrassment.
Her friends started teasing her, and for a few moments, they all forgot that there was an emergency. Their voices were too loud, and the cover of darkness did nothing to save them from the man around the corner.
"HEY!"
Julia opened her mouth to let out a piercing scream, and the man reflexively stuck his left hand over it. He was across the street, impossible for him to reach, but it didn't stop. It kept going, and going, and going, his arm stretching across the street, and it stuck to Julia's mouth with a wet shlorp, like silly putty.
"Hey ladies! You gotta stop yelling, or else our cover will be blown," Jimmy yelled.
Mary Jane sized up Jim-Jam from across the street.
He stood underneath the street light with a wicked grin plastered across his face. His hair was short and groomed; he wore a black tuxedo with green dress shoes. His sparkling blue eyes and mischievous grin reminded her of a certain someone she didn't like, and immediately she didn't trust him.
He zipped across the street, his arm scrunching up, and when he got to Julia, a little pop happened when her mouth was set free.
"Why are you dressed like that," Mary Jane asked.
"Party. Got crashed by aliens. I think they followed me," Jimmy said. "Maybe we should leave and—"
A bullet pierced Jimmy's left shoulder, but it went through the moment he felt the pain. His left shoulder split open, his goopy body leaving a hole for it to pass through and hit the pavement.
"Oh gosh, that can't be good," he chuckled.
More bullets came at them, and the women hid in a dark alley, but Jimmy didn't move. He felt like showing off, and he had an audience to view his skills.
"Jimmy, stop trying to be a hero! Get over here," Annie shouted.
"But I am a hero. That's literally my job," Jimmy said.
He took off his left glove, stuffed it in his back pocket, and flashed his Fealty Ring. The new leader of Team 8, who had replaced Mary Jane in her absence, was just like her.
Confident, loud, and too strong for their own good.
Jimmy's transformation wasn't graceful.
Most who used the Fealty Rings had a slow and beautiful transformation, almost ethereal. His was a short burst of violent blue light, and before it disappeared, his arms stretched out and grabbed onto the street poles on the left and right sides of the street with two wet shlurps. He dug his feet into the ground and walked backwards to gain tension.
Mary Jane watched in awe as his body opened and closed again, the bullets passing through him.
When he stretched out a good distance, his body stopped letting the bullets pass through. Instead, they stuck to him, rippling across his body and sinking in. He lifted his feet off the ground, and his body went flying down the street. The speed pushed out the bullets from his rubber body, piercing buildings and hidden enemy combatants. He released his arms, meters away, down the street, and moved his body forward.
The women watched as his rubbery, gooey arms went up in an arc down the street, and then a loud slurp could be heard in the distance.
Jimmy swung through the concrete jungle using his arms like vines, whipping them around, killing Ionadian soldiers with ease.
"Holy shit," Mary Jane said.
"See? Isn't Jim-Jam awesome," Julia gushed.
Jim-Jam smashed his arm into a soldier's body, crushing it between a car, making his body gush out with oil.
"Totally!"
"We can't just let him do all the work just because he's strong! Let's go," Annie said.
"What formation do we use," Julia asked Mary Jane.
Mary Jane blushed, put on the spot. She hadn't been asked that question in years. Her heart raced, and her eyes flicked back and forth as her brain ran through battle plans.
"Stairway to Heaven," she replied.
"Oh yes, I love that one! Let's do it," Julia cheered.
They ran off into the dark, their bodies slowly glowing their respective colors: purple, pink, and gold.