Minutes after the explosion at the airport, Amp was soaring through the sky, lost in thought.
That man… the way his eye flickered.
With a buzz, a message came through.
"Amp, there's a domestic situation being called in. It's pretty far outside the city. Would you mind checking it out?"
"I'm on it."
Never mind him, Amp thought. I still need to figure out why I was previously decommissioned.
As he arrived at the location, he contacted HQ. "I've arrived at wherever the hell this is…"
Static. No one responded.
"Great," he muttered, hovering in the sky with his arms folded.
Looking down, he saw a massive forest—trees splintered, parts of it ripped apart and scattered like a box of dropped matches.
"What happened here?"
Suddenly, he heard yelling. "I've had it with you!"
There goes my answer.
He followed the voices and landed in front of a man and woman fighting.
"The hell?"
He saw the man—short black hair, white vest, grey sweatpants—charging straight toward a woman, fist raised and clenched with bad intentions.
"Hey, don't do it!" Amp shouted. Just as he was about to take flight, the woman—medium build, shoulder-length red hair, red dress—instantly appeared in front of the man. With a vicious snap, she launched a punch straight at his ribs, folding him into her fist like a chef mixing wet dough.
Damn.
With a slight grimace, Amp watched as the man flew through the woods, breaking through trees like a bowling ball dropped on a stack of toothpicks. As the man landed, forming a crater beneath himself, the woman followed, landing on top of him.
"You'll regret looking at that girl."
The man chuckled. "Oh, I did more than that."
"Arrgh! You arrogant—" She shouted, raising her right fist.
As it descended, Amp appeared next to them, grabbing her hand. "That's enough!" he yelled, his voice echoing throughout the forest.
As the birds flew off, she yelled at Amp, "Don't touch me, you—!"
At that moment, her eyes widened.
This guy's not normal. I'm strong enough to juggle trucks like fruit, but with this guy, I can't even pull my hand away—
The man in the white vest yelled out in a whisper, "Sasha, stop resisting and do what he says."
She nodded and, with a low, sullen voice, she said, "Sorry."
Amp let her hand go and she stepped back, allowing the man on the ground to get up. As he did, his ribs began to crack back into place.
With a venomous tone, the woman asked, "Who are you and what do you want?"
The man instantly shushed her, covering her mouth. "Sorry sir, she's a bit uninformed about what happens in the world. Uh, how can we help a freshly top 50 Hero like you today?"
Upon hearing the word 'hero,' she instantly straightened herself and stood slightly closer behind the man.
Shit, an F.F.H. hero. Why the hell would one be here now? she thought.
Amp's brow twitched slightly. Folding his arms, he asked them, "You both speak English quite well for people living in EisenHelm."
"We're not originally from here. Long story short, we don't like the restrictions that come with living in the Western Front, so we moved here to the eastern side of the world. Moving from place to place."
"I see. You do know that just because you aren't in the Western Front, you can't just use your powers openly, especially at this scale."
The man nodded. "Yes sir, uh, we tend to get carried away doing some uh… role playing. That's why we live so far out away from humans, but you're right. We'll definitely get on it."
"Good—"
Something strange is definitely going on here.
"—Well, the reason I'm here is because we received a distress call from this area."
The man turned back to the woman. As he did, he balled his hand into a fist; she instantly grabbed it, smiling at Amp.
"That's strange. We can't even get a good signal here; must've been an accident or a passerby," she said.
"I thought you said you guys were isolated."
"Uh, uh, yes, but you never know."
Amp narrowed his brows before releasing his stare. "Fair enough. Guess all I need is to see your fulfilled service cards and I'll be out of your way."
She smiled, her voice slightly pitched. "No problem, our caravan is this way."
Amp followed them. As they made their way, he looked around the forest.
Living in such an isolated place, they both seem to be in good health, and yet they don't look like the resourceful type.
The man turned around. "Here we are."
In front of them was a massive, blue, rusted caravan, the top of which had a large satellite jury-rigged to the roof.
"Impressive," Amp commented.
The man smiled. "That isn't the best part."
He pulled out a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. The caravan shook slightly and multiple monitors—welded to metallic arms—emerged. As they carefully lined up, three rows stacked on top of another, they formed a super-monitor.
"Took a bit of grit to set up, but it was well worth it. Once in a while we get visitors and we all gather around and—"
That could explain it, Amp thought. On the way here, I saw massive amounts of tire tracks that for some reason abruptly stopped. He could be in some type of nomad community.
"That's nice, but I just want to see your—"
"Don't worry about that, Sasha will get them card things. Let's just watch the game."
Sasha raised her voice, rushing inside. "Oh yes, that's right! I still need to clean and search inside, there's no need—"
"I insist." Amp followed closely behind her.
The man in the white vest looked on as the monitor switched on.
"Suit yourself."
As Amp stepped inside through the kitchen, he saw that it was bigger on the inside than on the outside.
What the... this sort of technology shouldn't be possible.
Looking around, he noted how clean it was. The white, seamless interior, low-seated couches, and multiple monitors—the entire place could easily sell as a high-rise apartment in the richest part of New Sentinel.
As he was about to comment on it, his eyes suddenly widened. He turned to see a young boy sitting in the corner of the room, playing a video game on a device.
The woman walked up to Amp, whose face had now darkened.
"Here they are." She handed him two small cubes, but Amp said nothing. "Uh, I'm sure you know this, but you're meant to press them to, you know… see the cards…"
She then thought to herself,
Man, what's wrong with this guy? Did that little—
Amp suddenly turned to her with a smile—the same type of smile she had put on when she found out he was a hero.
"Thank you," he said as he took the cubes and pressed them. As two holograms popped up, he said to himself, "Yeah, that seems about right."
As she watched Amp at the kitchen table, the woman slowly began to step backward, thinking back to how he had smiled at her. Just then, the caravan door opened wide. The man in the white vest stepped through.
"You, uh, found what you need?" Stopping midway in the door, he leaned back, resting his weight on the frame.
Amp stood up, still looking at the forms. "Yes, but it's not good. I'm afraid you have a couple of issues here."
Unfazed, the man replied, "Oh? What are they?"
Amp turned to them both. "The F.F.H. requires all Neos level 1 and above, which you two clearly are, to do at least two years of service during which you'll learn to control your powers."
The man agreed. "Yes, so long as there aren't any extenuating circumstances which would apply to both me and her."
"See, that's where two of the three issues come in. The first is that this woman isn't the woman on this form. Sasha, was it?"
She gulped. "What are you talking about? That's clearly—"
"No, it isn't. Your fingerprints and the patterns on your iris are completely different."
She gasped before shouting, "What? There's no way you can—"
"I'll get to that, but given your reaction, it's fair to say I'm right."
She opened her mouth to answer but remained quiet.
The man in the white vest blinked.
"My Sasha? Man, you can't trust nobody these days. Continue."
She grunted, her eyes piercing the man with disdain.
Amp continued. "Issue 2: It says here you were given a severe, life-altering injury during your service and had to leave just weeks into the program."
The man faintly smiled. "What can I say? I got better."
"Hmph. Somehow they must've missed your super-healing ability."
"Must have. Lucky for me."
"Yeah, it's amazing how much luck money can buy. I'll admit it, the whole 'simple Neo' act got me. At first, I thought you robbed a couple of people who were unfortunate enough to cross your path, but you're not as simple as you pretend to be, are you?"
With his eyes half-lidded, the man fully stood up and entered the caravan. "Humans are simple. An accent and cheap choice of clothing, and people think they've got you all figured out. What was your third issue?"
Amp stood with arms folded, watching him closely.
He's stalling.
"Before I answer that, I have a question. Your intelligence—is that a superpower as well, or—?"
"Don't be ridiculous. No Neo is that lucky. No, this IQ is fully human—all 170 points of it," he said, glaring at Amp.
"Hmph. You must be so proud." Amp then unfolded his arms. "The third issue—"
Suddenly, the woman charged at him. Having grabbed a knife, she firmly gripped it and swung. As the blade made its way to Amp, he continued staring at the man, unfazed. The blade finally made contact, but the instant it did, it snapped.
With a gasp, the woman saw her reflection in the glare of the broken blade. "Fuck!"
With a flick to the forehead, Amp sent her flying across the room, caving her into the wall, shaking the entire building.
Not batting an eye at her, the man said, "Idiot. Amp, please continue."
Amp continued. "The third issue: I'm guessing the kid is responsible for the network interference I've been getting."
The man's eyes slightly opened, now staring intensely at him. "I checked his code. He shouldn't have been able to communicate with you."
Amp smirked. "For anyone else, he wouldn't have. However, on certain frequencies, the stopping of a continuous signal counts as a 0, and the continuation a 1. Although the window is small, he was able to give the code for a domestic call."
The man's breathing began to grow heavy, veins slightly bulging beneath his skin. "That's not possible. He made that code years ago."
"I wouldn't know."
"Even if that's the case, given your intellect, you shouldn't have figured anything else out."
"As insulting as that is, you're right. Which goes back to issue number one. This is public knowledge: most level 2s have their ordinary senses tuned to such a high degree that they could be considered a power in and of themselves. Now, this is random, of course; however, my particular super-senses are sight and hearing."
The man turned to look at the boy, who glared back at him, his green eyes filled with a visceral
"Fuck you."
The man clenched his teeth as Amp continued. "Since I'm so slow, especially compared to you guys, he's been spelling it out for me—talking to me, telling me all the crimes you've done."
The man continued to stare at the boy, grumbling to himself, "Morse code."
"Correct. So you see, your biggest issue is twofold. One: you had a son who, by the looks of it, is significantly smarter than you. And two: your son chose me to deal with you."
Amp began to float in the air, inching closer to the man.
You deserve more than death, but this will have to do.
He then reached his hand out, about to grab his neck.
The man, still looking at the boy, told Amp, "Give it a second."
Amp paused. Suddenly, a static voice came through. "Amp, Amp!" a voice cried out desperately. "We know the situation and a military unit is on their way. You are not to—and I repeat, not to—touch that man!"
Amp turned his head, clicking the device in his ear. "What are you talking about? Do you know—"
"Amp, this is a direct F5 order from HQ. That man has made a deal with them to give up intel on over 30 percent of the rogue groups—"
"I don't give a damn!" Amp shouted. "This asshole has killed, experimented on, and drugged hundreds of people, not to mention what he did to his son. He dies, and he dies today!"
"Amp, listen to me! With the information and connections he has, we could be talking about saving thousands of lives. He'll still eventually go to prison, but as of right now, he needs to be kept safe and his operation needs to keep going."
Amp stood silent, then looked at the boy, who sat on the back of a couch. His face was slightly bruised, but his eyes still burned with a yearning for life.
Amp then spoke. "He maimed and cut the tongue out of his own kid. You guys can't possibly ask me to let him go."
"Sorry Amp, but… we have our orders."
Just then, the man spoke. "I was too soft on him. I thought that since he was just a human, that amount of trauma would have been sufficient. I'll have to correct this." He put his hands in his pockets. "Mr. Amp, I believe we're done here."
Amp looked at the man, who stared back at him, seemingly bored, as if wanting to yawn.
The voice in his ear continued. "Amp, don't listen to him. If you disobey this order, they'll strip you of your rank and decommission you again! It's not worth it. Stand down."
Amp said nothing, looking at the void, the man's hollow green eyes. He then heard the sound of heavy screeching outside.
The voice continued to warn him. "Amp, they're—"
He immediately crushed his earpiece, staring at the man as heavy boots thudded around the caravan.