Chapter Thirty-Three

“How the fuck--”

“Who doesn’t know you at this point?” the man said. 

I was trying to think of who this could have been to me. It couldn’t have been some random stranger because if a random stranger knew me, why would they be insane enough to sit down and have a conversation with me? Unless…they had some sort of defense, like superpowers. I thought back to just before I died. The couple. One of the only dark-skinned Nobles I saw. This couldn’t be him, right? I didn’t want to assume. Sure, I’ve committed murder, but racism wasn’t a line I was gonna cross. 

“Why didn’t you just attack me? You’re clearly someone who believes they can take me,” I taunted. 

He stood and looked down at me as he spoke. “I don’t think like you. I considered the harm that me attacking you might cause to the other patrons in here. Now, I’m not gonna bring you in. I just wanted to see what kind of person I was dealing with.”

“You psychoanalyzing me, doc?”

“My wife’s the doctor. And both of us think we can’t let killing out fellow heroes slide, but I personally believe you are justified in your goal. You’re not aware of the fucked up things Asai has done,” he said. The way he swore sounded like he didn’t do it often. There was such emphasis on the word. “All in the name of preserving human life.”

He left money on the counter for the bartender and began to head out. “This conversation never happened.”

I had a choice to make. I could sneak a kill on him now and reduce the number of Nobles to deal with later, or let him walk if he was who I believed he could have been. The mention of the wife close to confirmed my suspicion along with the not agreeing with Asai. It had to be him. 

With my thoughts branching, I was given less and less time to act. However, I decided, at this moment, not to act. Perhaps their outlook on Asai could be something I could use to my benefit. 

I did follow him in leaving the bar a little while after he left and was going to head back to Tristan's hideout when I noticed two Nobles patrolling behind me. I kept my face hidden from them, but with them following me down each street I walked down, I think I had already been made. 

I had to make a stand as I couldn’t lead them back to the hideout. Pulling out my phone for backup would cause them to act immediately and would draw the attention of the surrounding civilians, so I ducked into an alleyway, and of course, they followed me. I turned around at the very end of the alley that only led to a small opening to the back of a group of apartments. 

I didn’t recognize these two. They were probably Nobles I scrolled past on their app. Luckily for me, they were stupid enough to introduce themselves. 

“This is the end for you, Amaia Luther,” the younger-looking one said. He had spiky, uncontrolled, black hair, pitch-black goggles, and a superhero outfit that made him look like the other’s sidekick. 

“Remember, she’s not one to take lightly, Cadet,” the other one said. He was dressed in a spandex outfit that had short sleeves like a baseball tee and a half-cowl mask attached to the spandex that made his eyes look pure white. 

“She’ll be no trouble for the number one Noble!” Cadet boasted, proudly standing with his chest out and his fists on his hips. The spitting image of Metaman.

“Maybe it’s best if I take the lead on this one--”

“No, Captain Elastic. Be my backup,” Cadet said.

“Captain Elastic and Cadet?” I said.

“I am CAPTAIN Cadet to you, Miss!” Cadet told me. “I earned that title when I became the number one Noble!”

“From…whom?”

“D-Does it matter?! I’m going to stop you!” he said. 

“Well, I can already guess what your friend does. Let’s see what you’re capable of,” I said. I stood completely still as he ran at me, swinging his fists wildly through the air. I was waiting for fire to form at his fists, or a clone to sneak up behind me, or an explosion--anything. But, this…this was his plan. One of his fists connected with my collar bone, but I didn’t budge. He looked up at me nervously and pulled his hand away as it began to freeze. 

He was snatched away by his partner’s stretchy powers and stood between me and Cadet now. 

“That…was your plan?” I questioned. “How did you become number one of anything? Let alone the group of people that protect this city. Or are supposed to.”

“Allow me to explain,” Elastic said, still bracing himself for me to attack. “Captain Cadet here is powerless. However, he’s always had a certain amount of luck whenever it came to peril. Some other Noble was always there to aid him in the shadows when some sort of catastrophe happened. He always took credit.”

“So, probability manipulation?”

“No. He never received the serum. He never received any sort of blessing from the archangels or demons or gods,” Elastic continued. “He’s just a normal kid trying to live out his dream of being a superhero. And I’m here to see to it that he does.”

I grit my teeth to the point where I could hear them creaking. The temperature in the alley dropped by 50 degrees as my eyes began to glow blue. 

“Before you die, let me ask, did that African American Noble with the wife lead you to me?” I asked. 

“You mean Ripple? No, we haven’t seen him since…well the Keep, where you died,” Cadet answered. So, I could still probably manipulate this…Ripple, then.

“You there. Kid.”

“I’m 17!”

“You sicken me. Your giving people false hope pisses me off. What if someone were to actually need a superpowered savior and you were their only option?” I questioned.

“What does it matter? You’re trying to get rid of all the superpowered saviors anyway!” Cadet shouted. 

“I am saving people. By getting rid of their false hopes. Getting rid of the reasons aliens choose to attack the planet,” I countered. “I’ve already done more than you could do in a lifetime. Your existence is and was pointless. Let’s see your luck save you now.”

I sped up the ice that was growing on his fist, causing his entire body to freeze over in a pose that was looking up at Elastic in fear. 

“NO!” he shouted, making the mistake of touching the ice sculpture. “UNFREEZE HIM, YOU BITCH!”

“And you enabled him. You let him play dress-up and fuck with people’s lives,” I said. 

“He saved people!”

“You just said other Nobles did the work for him. That fucker couldn’t even save himself from his own stupidity. And it’s his stupidity that got him killed. That and me,” I said, closing my hand to form a fist. The Cadet ice sculpture burst into several shards; shards that embedded themselves in Elastic’s body. 

He tried to expand and grow his body rapidly, but this process was slowed by not only the shards, causing him pain because I was manipulating them to grow through his body, but the temperature drop I caused for the alleyway. 

He was able to expand his hand into a size that would crush a normal human. He was persistent in his demise. I would be too, if my pseudo-son was just killed in front of me. The hand was pressed on top of me, and I made him think he had an advantage for a brief second, before I lifted it, dropping the temperature in the hand through touch, giving it frostbite. Before he could slowly retract it, I slowly removed the fingernails before shoving large ice spikes through the nubs that remained. 

He gave up after this, not even wasting his energy on shrinking his hand. He knew the fight was over as I was still causing the ice shard to grow through his body. My guess is they were beginning to pierce his vital organs. 

He uttered his last words before succumbing to the multiple wounds I inflicted on him. “I’ll see you soon, Cadet.”

At least, I was decent enough to reunite them.