[February 21st, 7:02pm, somewhere near the President’s Manor]

   ‘So, it finally started huh?’

   ‘Yup, about time.’

   ‘Did they mentioned how long is the meeting?’

   ‘It’s at least three hours, emphasize on the words “at least.”’

   ‘Well, hopefully something will happens soon.’

      ‘Don’t jinx it, man.’

   ‘I’m telling you that there will be something. Seriously, did you expect Bushfire to come here for sightseeing? There’s also those mafia dudes with their mind-controlling device.’

   ‘Oh yeah, I guess you’re right.’

   Blitz, Diablo and Ignition are currently staked out on top of a rooftop at a building near the manor. It has been quiet so far, but Blitz do not believe for a minute that things will go smoothly tonight. Besides the police, the trio also occasionally saw some heroes who were patrolling the perimeter. Needless to say, they showed their faces to neither of those groups.

   It was Ignition who first realized something was wrong, as the other two were lying down on the floor and taking a quick nap.

   ‘Um, guys? You better take a look at this.’ he called out to them.

   Blitz and Diablo immediately got up and rushed to stand beside Ignition.

   All the police are moving like this is the first time they get to control their limbs. Their are either swinging their hands too much when walking, or not being able to control their legs and fall over completely. Those who do manage to walk properly are either constantly snapping their teeth, blinking too slow or too fast in one go, or a lot of other actions that no normal humans would take.

   ‘What’s wrong with them?’ Diablo asked Ignition.

   ‘I have no idea. One second they were standing guard normally, and in the next they started to behave like that.’

   Through his sunglasses, Blitz noticed something coming out of all the police. When he takes a closer look with the built-in binoculars function of his sunglasses, he noticed that they were radio waves.

   ‘Oh, this is bad.’ Blitz muttered.

   ‘What, you saw something?’ Diablo looked at him and asked.

   ‘Yup, and you’re not gonna like this.’

   Just as Blitz was about to explain, three heroes who were nearby also noticed the officers’ strange behaviour. They go near the police, probably to ask what’s wrong, but then one of the police opened his mouth and started to talk.

   ‘“We are the alliance of all the gangs in Desordre.”’ Blitz who could read lips read them out loud for the benefits of the other two. ‘“We have hijacked the body of every single police officer here. Our goals are to take the presidents hostage, and demand ransoms from their respective country. We will give you thirty minutes to arrange a negotiation. Try anything funny, and there will be body counts.”’

   After that, all the police retreated into the manor, either by walking in a bizarre way or crawling. The heroes were absolutely horrified, and had the expressions of those who were at a lost.

   ‘Um, I know I’m stating the obvious, but isn’t this really bad?’ Ignition asked.

   ‘Yup, you’re stating the obvious.’ Diablo agreed.

   Somehow, Blitz is still calm, probably because he managed to come up with a plan.

   ‘I need to have a talk with the heroes.’ Blitz told Ignition and Diablo.

   ‘What? You can’t be serious!’

   While the heroes are still in a shocked state, Blitz ran to them quick as a lightning and appeared in front of them, which scared the living daylights out of them.

   Before the heroes could say or do anything, Blitz quickly opened his mouth and started to talk. ‘Wait, I just want to talk! ’

   The three heroes looked at each other, unsure of what to do. Just then, one of the heroes, the one called Frostedge whom Blitz had more or less cooperated with to fight a group of bank robbers around a year ago, spoke.

   ‘I take it that you have a plan?’ he asked.

   ‘Yes, but we need more people. Could you somehow try to get contact with the other heroes who might be in the city?’

   ‘All right.’

   The other two heroes agreed to listen as well, and the three of them went off to search for the other heroes who were patrolling the city. Ten minutes later, they managed to find five more heroes, making the assembly consists of eight heroes and three underground heroes.

   ‘Now, we don’t have much time, so I’ll make this quick, and please interrupt as little as possible.’ Blitz told them.

   He started to tell them that a few days ago, that he caught wind that Rosasco was planning something in order to take over the city. Upon hearing this, Blitz decided to attack their HQ and kill him, hoping his death would discourage his men. And then, the entire gang has gone berserk and try to take revenge by attacking the city. Blitz guessed that Bushfire was probably behind it, although he was unsure of the cult leader’s motive.

   Later, Blitz also found out that Fucile was sent by Rosasco to go to Besporyadok to get a mind control device. Sadly, Blitz’s informant could not identify how does the device work. After Fucile learns that most if not all of Becco Di Sangue attacked the city to get revenge and got arrested, he resorted to selling the device to rival gangs. Next, he told them of what he just saw, how the police have started to move like zombies and had radio waves coming out of their bodies, indicated that they were being controlled.

   ‘It all connects now. The reason Bushfire made sure that the gang was out of commission before this big day, why Fucile called off his late boss’s plan after the gang was as good as disbanded, and the fact that I saw radio waves coming out of all the officers. It’s because the device works like a remote control, where one device works on one person.’ Blitz concluded.

   Diablo also drew a conclusion. ‘So the device is a body controller, not a mind controller.’

   The others glared at him with a look that clearly asks ‘Does it matter?’.

   ‘Anyway, I got a plan to fix this whole mess. But first, anyone wants out?’

   Blitz was surprised that Ignition and Diablo aside, all the heroes are on board with the plan that he has yet to bring out. He was even more surprised that they actually believed his theory without a single shred of doubt.

   ‘All right then. We have to split up into two groups. The first group will be responsible for raiding the place where all the gangsters are holed up and knock them dead.’

   ‘Knock them unconscious.’ another hero Brightman corrected.

   ‘That’s what I said.’

   ‘But what will you do if the gang members retaliate the moment their place is raided by, you know, harming the hostages?’ Frostedge asked.

   ‘That’s where my power comes in. I can deploy an electromagnetic force field that will disable all electronic devices within it. With that said, I have to be in the first group. Plus, I’m the only one who could see the radio waves.’

   ‘As for the second group, you guys are in charge of keeping the zombie police in check. They mentioned about arranging a negotiation, so this group will do just that. After the first group is done, the second group will go inside the manor and guide the presidents and anyone else in there to safety. And then, we will round up the gangsters with the help of the police, depending on how long it takes them to regain control of their body.’

   After the briefing, all of them were divided into the two groups. As mentioned, Blitz with be in the group responsible for the attack. Besides him, there are of course Ignition and Diablo, and also:

   Pluralman, who is able to multiply himself

   Brightman, who has the power of teleport and can shoot light rays out of his eyes

   Frostedge, the hero with the power to conjure ice

   Miss Gravity, a female hero that can control gravity

   Giganto, who can adjust his body size at will

   As for the second group, it consists of Flora, who can control plants, and Kaboom with the ability to produce shock wave. As the thirty minutes is almost up, these two immediately set off to look for the ambassadors from each country who are taking up residence at a neighboring street.

   ‘All right, we’re leaving too.’ Blitz told the others.

   They nodded and followed after Blitz who started to head towards the gangsters’ hideout. At first, they were heading there quietly. But after a few minutes of slow jog, Blitz starts to lose his patience.

   ‘Oh. My. KILOMETERS! This is taking forever!’ Blitz complained. ‘Can’t you guys move a bit faster?’

   ‘Hey, you’re the one who’s always running too fast.’ Giganto told him.

   ‘Well don’t blame me! If I got used to run fast, it’s weird for me to start jogging, you know? Hell, this isn’t even jogging for me, it’s just walking fast.’ he looked back at Miss Gravity, who was leisurely gliding behind everyone else. ‘Hey Newton! Care to make them float?’

   ‘First of all, don’t call me that. Newton was a guy, remember? Second, I need to save my strength, so I can’t, and won’t. You’ll just have to endure it, Speed Boy.’

   Blitz groaned loudly and had to continue while maintaining his snail pace. Thirty minutes later, they finally reached their destination: an abandoned warehouse near the beach.

   ‘Finally! I was about to fall asleep!’ Blitz let out a huge sigh of relief.

To avoid being detected, they made sure they kept their distance while they come up with a plan to assault the place.

   ‘They got guards. Five of them, and they look like they got superpowers.’ Pluralman reported after looking at the entrance with his monocular.

   ‘They’re not much of a big deal. We can take them.’ Blitz said confidently.

   ‘So, we’ll charge in once your force field is made?’ Ignition asked.

   Blitz nodded. ‘I’ll run to the roof and jam every single device they’re using. After that, we’ll go wild.’

   ‘Actually, it’s better if you just stay put, at least until we’re done with the doormen.’ Brightman suggested. ‘It’ll be bad if you were knocked unconscious or worse and deactivates the force field.’

   ‘Ugh, fine. But I get first dibs on kicking open the doors.’

   And so, Blitz ran up to the roof of the warehouse without any of the five bouncers noticing. Once up there, he concentrated and conjured up an electromagnetic field big enough to enshroud the entire building and even underground. Then, he gave a signal to the others who were waiting to attack.

   ‘Let’s go!’ Brightman shouted and teleported right in front of the bouncers.

   The bouncers were taken completely by surprise, and one of them was shot by Brightman’s lasers before they could regain composure.

   Outnumbered and overpowered, it was not long before they were overwhelmed and defeated. This does not come as a surprise to Blitz, as none of them were truly dangerous criminals.

   Seeing that there are no more superhuman threat, Blitz jumped down from the roof and jump-kicked the front door of the warehouse in one fluid motion while yelling ‘Knock, knock!’

   After that, everything went by very quickly. As soon as they went in, the gangsters probably guessed that their plan is a failure, so they destroyed their phones, which they claimed to be the control devices, by their own accords. Every single member there, from the grunts to the executives, raised up their hands in surrender, not even bothering to defend themselves.

   ‘Well this sucks, I was expecting some action.’ Blitz muttered.

   ‘You should be glad that it did not end in bloodshed every once in a while.’ Brightman told him.

   ‘Yeah yeah, a bloodless victory is the sweetest victory.’ Blitz chanted Brightman’s catchphrase sarcastically.

   ‘I’ve contacted Flora and Kaboom. It seems that when the device was down, all the police officers became conscious again. After the two told them what had happened, they left the President’s Manor and handcuffed their limbs with another officer so that they will not go on a rampage again.’ Giganto reported.

   ‘Please tell Flora and Kaboom to tell the officers that it is over now, and we need their help to arrest these gang members.’ Brightman said.

   ‘Got it.’

   ‘So now what?’ Pluralman asked.

   ‘Now we will act dumb while certain degenerates make their escape.’ Brightman said while developing a sudden interest at the floor.

   Blitz looked around and found that other heroes are also doing the same, except Miss Gravity, who was staring intently at her phone.

   Accepting the heroes’ generous offer, the three underground heroes left the warehouse.

   [February 21st, 3 minutes after the device had malfunctioned, inside the President’s Manor]

   Soon after the police officers have somehow regained the controls of their bodies, two heroes appeared and told them of what had happened. Upon hearing the situation, Chief of Police Brody Hendriks, who at a moment ago was pointing his handgun at President Adam Todd of Mikorontana while headbanging like a possessed metal singer, immediately told his subordinates to leave the manor and handcuff their limbs to each other in groups of two until the matter is solved.

   ‘Mister President, sir, we need to leave.’ Todd’s head bodyguard Maxwell Roth told him.

   ‘But the manor’s safe now, isn’t it?’

   ‘Yes sir, but to prevent another hostage incident, it’s better if we leave.’

   Roth had been Todd’s bodyguard for more than a decade now, so he trusts his judgment fully. Therefore, he told his host President Matthew West that he and his bodyguards are leaving for now, and followed Roth to the car he rode to come to the manor.

   When Todd went inside the car, someone else was already in it. A man wearing a black hood.

   ‘Greetings, President Todd.’ the man said.