Oooh, I wanted to write this chapter so badly! I had to take about ten days to work on other stuff, drawings, and some personal projects outside of writing, but I was able to get this entire chapter done in less than two days. It was one of the story beats I had been looking forward to the most since the beginning, and I hope that translates into the quality of it, hehe.

Chapter eight out of ten! We're in the endgame now! Last we left off, we saw Lincoln face to face with an ominous mecha suit designed to fight metahumans. How will Ace Savvy manage to get out of this encounter alive? Will he be able to sort out this powerful obstacle? Will this mission be a failure or a success? Let's find out!

As always, special thanks to the always loyal readers. I had gotten used to Requiem where the huge number of messages wouldn't let me reply to each of them individually, but I don't have that issue right now, so let's get to it!
Ninetails: Yup, not his best day lol
Flameas: Let's see how that goes!
Guest: Interesting theory. We'll see.
Linkonpark100: We'll soon see if you were correct or not!
Jeff: Yeah, it was inevitable that he would mess up at some point, compromising his whole secret identity and social life. I'm glad to hear Tetherby's guards being an absolute disaster got some laughs, but that doesn't take away from the seriousness of the whole operation and the game Tetherby's been playing from the shadows.
FanficFan920: That's a very interesting theory. We'll see how that holds up in future chapters.
STR2D3PO: You summed it up perfectly lol
TristPHT: Thank you! I don't know if you mean like an encyclopedia article or just stories centered around other siblings. They will all have their stories and roles to play, but you can google "Underratedhero Heroverse" on Twitter and you should be able to find a breakdown of each Loud sibling on this universe, their secret identity, their powers, and stuff.
copet: Thank you so much! There will certainly be sequels to this story. And yes, it's pretty short at 10 chapters, but I'm trying to keep these as short stories that all build up a bigger narrative when put together, so hopefully, you'll enjoy the rest as much as this one, he.
TheAwesomeCoolJay: It wouldn't be me if Lincoln didn't have strong emotional struggles lol Thanks for reading!


Chapter 8:
Critical failure.

Some people see themselves obtaining better results when they're under pressure. Maybe they feel more comfortable kicking a penalty shot to secure the championship, or they make a better job on their homework when they get it done the night before delivering it. The extra pressure is a way for them to push themselves to give their one hundred percent, to get to that point where failure is not an option, so they only get the best result possible, end of discussion.

I had never considered myself part of that specific group of people, but finding myself standing in front of a twenty-feel tall, anti-metahumans robot with intentions of ravaging me to oblivion, I could only pray that I was indeed pretty good at acting under pressure.

Everything was happening too fast, so the first thing I did was trying to calm myself and analyze the situation as objectively and smart as I possibly could, trying to find the most logical, reasonable way to get out of the tough spot I was at. Very well then, what did my situation look like? For starters, my brother had figured out my secret identity as a superhero after following me into the very lair of a villain that had quite possibly caused Ace Savvy's death, and after I neutralized an important number of armed goons, a mecha suit on fire was ready to destroy me.

Dang it, how could I possibly be calm?! The whole operation had gone to hell! Everything that could have gone wrong went even worse than my deepest nightmares! I had no time to calm myself down, my top priority was to get Clyde to safety, making sure he got out of this unharmed, and best-case scenario, not die in the process.

"Last warning, Ace Savvy," the pilot repeated, taking one step forward. Even though I can't say that I felt the ground shake when the heavy mecha-foot made contact with it, the sound it caused made it clear that it wasn't exactly lightweight. "Turn yourself in right now or we'll be forced to put you down."

I was definitely not gonna give in. That was out of the question. And I couldn't just let them capture Clyde, or my secret identity and my family's well-being would be compromised and put at deadly risk. My only options were to either fight or flight. But, could I successfully fight against a robotic suit design to eliminate metahumans? So far I had only faced regular people. Adults, yeah, but they were still just commonfolk. The original Ace Savvy had fought several kinds of villains and supervillains throughout his glorious career, some even stronger and more threatening than what this robot looked like.

But I wasn't the original Ace Savvy.

There was only one sensible course of action, then. Breathing in before doing what could potentially become the greatest mistake of my life, I rushed to grab two smoke cards and threw them around me, creating a smokescreen to hide my position. I took several steps to the side just in case, not wanting to receive a direct shot just for standing still, and then I immediately grabbed as many explosive cards as I could handle, throwing them towards my enemy. Not waiting for them to impact, I took one more and ran to Clyde.

The Aces were small, thin projectiles moving fast in the middle of the night, so I'm sure the pilot couldn't see them until it was far too late. I heard the explosions, one right after the other in a fast percussion rhythm, with the horrible sound they made against the steel. I didn't want to turn around to see the result; as soon as I got out of my own smokescreen, I went to grab Clyde, who was scared senseless on his knees, wrapping his arms around his head.

"Come on!" I yelled, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him up in one move. The metal fence was right behind us, so I dragged him to it. I threw the explosive card I had in my hand, causing enough destruction to open a hole big enough for my brother and me to crawl through.

I would have appreciated it if he ran as fast as I did, but even though he was doing it like his life depended on it —which was probably true—, it felt like he was more worried about not tripping and falling face-first to the ground. There was nothing I could do to make him go faster, however, so I just kept dragging him as fast as I could through the street, looking for an alley to sneak away and disappear into the night.

I heard a strange sound behind my back, like some fireworks moving up into the sky, with fire trails behind them impulsing them at full speed.

"Watch out!" Screamed Clyde, forcing me to turn around and take a look. Just in time to see what seemed to be two small rockets flying after us.

"Take cover!" I said to him, letting his wrist go and stopping my running. The missiles were coming at us impossibly fast, turning in circles in the air, like they were rotating around an imaginary axis aimed at me. Or at least one of them seemed to be aimed at me. The other one was flying higher and seemed to be going further down the street.

Ignoring the one that didn't present an immediate threat to my life, I decided to do what I had seen Ace Savvy do many times before when he fought enemies that had ranged weapons, up to the night of his death. I grabbed a regular Ace, and after calculating the trajectory and movement for a few instants, I threw my card in a straight line, hitting the first projectile.

The explosion was much bigger than I would have imagined, considering that the missile didn't seem to be bigger than a two-liter soda bottle. The resulting explosion lit up the entire street, and a few seconds later, the second rocket did the same as it blew up a parked car and set it on fire.

"Are you okay?" I asked, desperately turning to look for my brother.

"Y-Yeah!" He answered, peeking out from behind a mailbox, sweating, and looking more anxious than I had ever seen him.

I wanted to go near him and check how he was doing first hand, but a new sound similar to that of the rockets but much deeper reached my ears, and I had to turn around to make sure they hadn't just launched a nuke to kill me.

The good news was that it wasn't a nuke. The bad news was that the effing mecha suit had thrusters on its back and feet, and it was moving towards me surprisingly fast. I assumed it would stop about sixty feet away from me to give out a machiavellian monologue and explain the futility of my efforts and how my lack of motivation would lead me to a foretold demise. This guy though had no sense of theatricality, so he just kept moving through the air at full speed towards me, raising one of its big, threatening fists.

It was unusually fast for something as big and robust, but my reflexes and superhuman dexterity were more than enough to make a backflip and easily avoid becoming a crater, unlike the street where I was just standing.

"I'll be honest, kid," the pilot said, looking at me from the cabin as the suit stood up, "I was hoping you wouldn't surrender. I've been meaning to test this baby against a real meta for months."

"How is it so far?"

"The response time isn't ideal, to be honest. There's a little delay between my commands and the movements."

"What's your ping like?"

"About a hundred and sixty."

"Your technology sucks," I said, raising an eyebrow. What kind of computer had 160 ping?

"Your mask sucks!"

It launched forward once again, trying to hit me with the other arm. I waited until the last second to jump, not letting it hit my legs. I fell on top of the fist, and I immediately began running all the way up the arm, going straight to the cabin. I took a glance at the suit, noticing the small dents and powder marks where my cards had hit it. I had damaged it, yes, but who knew how many more explosive cards would I need to break it? Those Red Aces were without a doubt the most powerful assets I had at my disposal, so if those weren't enough, then brute force wasn't the best approach to win this fight.

I planned to run up the robot's arm to get closer to the pilot's cabin and test how resistant the glass was, but I didn't count with the suit's torso to have autonomous movement from the waist down and the legs. Without any warning, the whole upper half of the mecha suit rotated on its axis, causing enough centrifugal force to throw me out. Everything was spinning around me for a confusing moment where I couldn't orient myself, but my sense of balance was sharper than usual, so I managed to turn my torso to fall on my heels, dragging a few inches before stopping.

I looked up just in time to see a heavy metal hand trying to karate chop me in half. I rolled aside, but as I was getting ready to grab an Ace and throw it to the cabin, the arm hit the ground and then swept horizontally, hitting me straight on the side of my torso.

It was like a ram charging at me, and it sent me several feet up the air. My back hit a brick wall, but it was nothing compared to the pain that the first hit made me feel. I didn't think I had any broken ribs, but I could feel my bones straining to stay together and not break under the force of the impact.

"Ace!"

Clyde's voice shook me out of my painful, stunning state. I opened my eyes and noticed the robot getting closer with its hand open, probably trying to grab me. Those hands were massive, and it could easily grip my entire body and restrain me if it managed to get to me.

"Gotcha!" He said, stretching his arm to me.

"Too slow!" I taunted, moving fast to avoid getting caught.

The pilot smiled and tried to repeat the same movement, spinning the torso at full speed to try to hit me with the back of the hand, but I wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. I let myself fall back, and I saw the hand sweeping inches above my nose. Before my back touched the ground, I stretched my arms to muffle my fall and push me on my feet once again. The torso and the arms could move at breakneck speed, but such a heavy suit would require special attention to its legs being grounded.

I ran for a few steps before sliding on the ground right between its legs, quickly reaching the back of the suit. That side was just as robust and protected as the front, but I could see some flexible conduits that were probably part of some sort of hydraulic system to get the robot's movements right. If the mecha suit had any obvious weakness, that had to be it.

"Where did you go?"

"On your left!" I said, moving to its right.

The fool fell for my trick, turning in the opposite direction. That left me with a tiny window of action to climb to its back and grab one of the conduits. I began to pull as hard as I could, but even though I could sense that I was taking it to its limit, I couldn't get to unplug it.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

It tried to punch me, but the arms wouldn't reach the back of it. I placed both my feet against its back and tried to pull once again, using all my weight to try to pry it open, and suddenly, a micro-perforation was torn, letting out a small, high pressured gas leak.

"Stop that!"

I kept pulling, trying to rip that thing off no matter what, but the suit began to shake, and the thrusters on its feet were activated, sending us full speed against the nearby brick building. I had to jump at the last second to avoid being crushed by six tons of steel.

The wall was absolutely demolished, with many bricks flying through the air, many of them hitting me hard in the head. I fell painfully on my back, but I couldn't waste a single second. I stood up, and the mecha suit got out of the building it had just destroyed.

"I must confess, Ace, you're pretty agile," the pilot said. "Too skillful for this prototype to catch you in melee combat. Unfortunately for you, the scientists at Tetherby Industries took these possible scenarios into account."

It stretched both of its arms forward, with its closed fists pointing at me. Two compartments on its forearms opened up, showing two small cannons with glowing lights inside.

"Oh, come on!" I complained, throwing my arms open.

The exoskeleton simply shrugged its shoulders before it charged up some kind of energy. Two electric sounds began to ring in the middle of the night, getting sharper and sharper as they charged up, similarly to how my Electric Aces worked. The glowing within the gun muzzles kept growing as well, until finally, with some recoil on the entire arms, both weapons shot energy beams at me.

I had no idea what was the nature of those attacks, but it didn't take a genius to realize that getting hit by them would be, at the very least, pretty painful. I managed to duck aside to dodge them, but the force of the impact on the street beside me was strong enough to break the asphalt and my balance for a second.

I hoped it would take it some time to charge its second round of attacks, but I had barely finished that thought when the pilot shot back at me. With no real way of jumping in time, I took my grappling hook gun to get to the opposite sidewalk. I swung fast, but the robot kept shooting, destroying the entire street and the front of all the nearby buildings.

"AAAAGH!"

That scream made me turn around. Clyde jumped just in time to avoid blowing up like the mailbox he had been hiding behind. He was now crawling next to a car to find some cover. My heart was pounding inside my chest as I tried to figure out a way to solve the predicament I was in. Every second the skirmish continued was a new possibility for my brother to get hurt. I needed to find a way of ending the encounter as soon as possible, or at the very least, getting Clyde away from collateral damage and cross-fire.

The pilot kept shooting at me, so I was forced to use my grappling hook to go high into the roof of a three-story building. I stood on the ledge and then proceeded to scrutinize my opponent. The conduits were a clear, evident, obvious weakness, but what else could I use in my favor to leave this fight victorious? I tried to think logically. The steel cuirass that covered the torso was evidently prepared to resist my assaults, but there was simply no way that every part of it was just as indestructible. He had to be your typical boss fight in a game, with a strong, impenetrable defense but weak points to exploit.

I thought about its movements. The torso moved like a spinning top, almost independently from the legs and the bottom half of it. The only way to achieve such fluid and fast moves would be to have a very precise and minimal joint between both parts. And I could, in fact, see a small gap, a separation between the torso and the waist. Too small for even my hand to fit in, but with enough space for a well-thrown explosive card to get inside.

It was an almost impossible shot, but I had to try it. Through the various weeks that I had spent as a superhero, I was still yet to miss a single Ace that I threw. This was, perhaps, my only chance of turning the tides of this confrontation.

"You're only delaying the inevitable," the pilot told me, once again pointing at me with its wrist guns.

I took out an explosive card, squinting my eyes and staring firmly at the pilot, trying to picture his smile behind the mask he was wearing. Did he really one of those, like he was a war pilot? Maybe the suit was designed to fight underwater or up in the sky, I wouldn't know.

After a dragged out staring contest in which we seemed to be measuring each other, he was the first one to attack, shooting two new beams into the ledge I was standing on. Having been expecting so, I leaped forward, avoiding being hit and throwing my card to its impossible destination. I could almost hear the original Ace Savvy's voice reaching me, whispering from beyond the grave to help me achieve my goal.

"Lincoln, use the Force," it told me.

The card flew through the air, but my opponent's turn wasn't done yet.

"I got you now," he said, and right away, a plaque on its chest opened up, showing what seemed to be three rocket launchers.

My eyes flew open. I was definitely not expecting that, and now I found myself in the middle of the air, with no way of moving out of the way or dodging them. The first cannon fired towards me, sending a rocket just like the ones I'd seen at the beginning of the chase.

The second and third cannons were ready to fire, but my card got there first. It went right inside the small gap that separated the torso from the legs, and the resulting explosion shook the entire suit. The pilot yelled, and the robot fell to its knees just as the remaining rockets shot away. The second one went astray down the street and the third one exploded right between the suit's legs, blowing up in a flare that surrounded its entire body and knocked it prone.

The first missile was rocketing straight at me, so without much time to react, I barely managed to take an Ace and threw it at it so the explosion happened four feet ahead of me and not right in my chest. I crossed my forearms in front of my face and bared myself for impact, but milliseconds before the explosion, a sharp, terrified cry stopped my heart.

"CLY—!" I meant to scream my brother's name, but the card hit the rocket, and the resulting explosion consumed me.

I felt an unbearable heat on my arms and the mask that covered my head. The sheer force of the explosion shook my entire body, and I plummeted to the ground, falling on my shoulders and hitting my head hard against the sidewalk.

The violence of the crash made me dizzy, and for the longest seconds, everything around me was reduced to one big, black mass of nothingness. I couldn't make out a single shape as colorful stars danced under my eyelids. There was also no sound, only an obnoxiously loud ringing in my ear that seemed to come from inside my skull, which hurt like someone was stabbing me with hot knives.

All the muscles in my body felt like they were about to strain, either painfully stretched out or contracted hard like stones. My existence was reduced to a perpetual state of unbearable pain, and for a few fateful seconds, I wondered if I was about to die.

That thought was like an adrenaline injection that shook me out of my catatonic state. I slowly gained back my vision, the black spots being pushed to just the corner of my eyes. I blinked a few times and took notice of my surroundings. The hot air around me was covered in dust and rubbish, with different fires left and right. I rolled over, face down on the sidewalk, and with a lot of pain, I used my forearms to push myself up.

"C-Clyde?" I called out, looking for him.

It didn't take long for me to find him, but oh, how I wished I hadn't seen what I saw.

My brother's body was lying next to a completely broken car that was set on fire. And it didn't seem to be moving.

Some say the soul weighs twenty-one grams. I'm no scientist, but I'm convinced the weight is much, much heavier. My soul left my body the moment I saw Clyde, and when it did, my body went from being a load too heavy to carry for my bones to be as light as a feather. Every fiber in my body was still squirming in pain, but I was able to stand up like nothing was wrong, limping in his direction as I recovered my leg's motor skills.

"Clyde, Clyde, are you okay?" I asked, falling on my knees next to him.

Even though I was right next to a burning car, my whole body was shaking cold, like my blood had been replaced with liquid nitrogen, freezing my insides. His jacket was destroyed, ripped, and burnt. He was face down against the floor, his back to me.

With a horrible sense of dread, I gently took him by his shoulders, put him on my lap, and turned him around.

The moment I saw his face, I gasped, and tears began to fall. His mouth was open, and his entire face was covered with small cuts, slashes, bruises, and burns. His glasses, however, were broken, and his left eye was swollen and bleeding, spilling blood all over his face.

"No, no, no, no, please, no," I bawled with the last of my breath. I put a hand on his cheek, staining my hand with my brother's blood. "Clyde, please, wake up! Clyde! Clyde!"

No sound. No movement.

"No! No, no! Wake up! Wake up!"

A horrible metallic sound forced me to turn around. Even as I held my brother's inert body tight on my lap, I saw the robot standing up. The damage was evident. It had lost a huge chunk on one of its legs, and the plaque that covered the rocket launchers had been shattered.

"YoOoUu ss-s-sOoN oF AAa—" the pilot said, the voice coming out of the speakers all messed up. It raised an arm in my direction, with sparks coming out of each joint, and the energy cannon began to glow up once again.

I had already given up. I had neither the strength nor the will to keep fighting or run away. With tears falling down my face, I held tight to my brother's body, my arms shaking the whole time, and I waited for my execution.

The gun's ringing became louder and louder until it suddenly went quiet. For an instant, it was as if it had absorbed every sound in the atmosphere. An endless silence surrounded us until the weapon shot, and the beam of light, energy, and death advanced straight at me.

As I saw my ending approaching, the only thing I could think of was that I had failed Ace Savvy once again.

To my utter and absolute surprise, however, a new car moved from the opposite sidewalk, floating a foot above the ground, standing like a wall between the robot and me. The energy beam hit the car, shattering the windows and breaking a door. There was no one inside, and in my stupor, I couldn't comprehend what was going on.

A few seconds later, everything made sense. Falling from the sky, a figure stood between the car and me. A girl wearing a green and white spandex suit, with locks of her blonde hair twirling like they were alive, and both hands extended to the car. With a roar, the girl took a step back and then leaned forward, moving her arms like she was pushing the car.

Even though she wasn't touching it, the car was catapulted into the robot. It would have hit it right in the cabin, but the pilot managed to move the arms to catch the chassis mid-air. He must have thought he had avoided the danger, but the car it had in its hands didn't let him see the figure surrounded by a blue aura of energy that fell from the sky like a meteor.

"HYYYA!"

The energy aura left the body and focused entirely on the right fist of this new girl, who was wearing a spandex suit with different shades of blue and white. She gave him an incredible punch that ripped the car in half and let out a flare of blue energy, hitting the robot and pushing it five feet in the air.

Perhaps because of the concussion, or maybe because I thought I was about to die, but it took me a second to comprehend what was going on. And when I did, I couldn't believe it.

"Eclipse! Nova!" I said, incredulous.

Eclipse, still standing in front of me, turned to look at me. I didn't see in her the warm, compassionate eyes that I saw back when she talked to me at the cemetery. Her eyes were serious and filled with determination, focused on her heroic duty.

"We'll handle this!" She said, waving a hand in my direction. My whole body felt light all of a sudden, and both Clyde and I moved swiftly through the air, resting softly away from the action.

The mecha-suit was trying to stand up when Nova, surrounded once again by her full aura, began pummeling it non-stop. Each hit let out a small flare, denting the robot's armor. The pilot tried to counterattack, but Nova moved in the air like a flying ninja, dodging each hit and striking back.

She didn't know how the suit worked, though, and feeling confident after avoiding a direct hit, she received a terrible punch to the face from the other hand after the robot's torso spun at full speed. The hit tossed Nova through the air into a window, which she would have broken right through if it wasn't because Eclipse rushed to her, extending a hand and suspending her in the air inches before she touched the glass.

"That was so rude!" Eclipse complained, flying several feet in the air and raising both hands. Right away, all the debris that my battle against the robot had created shot up from the ground to where she was. Bricks, car parts, glass shards, pieces of concrete, they all orbited her like an asteroid belt around a planet.

The pilot aimed both arms at Eclipse and began to shoot. She made a small movement with her hand like she was just trying to push away a fly, and different pieces of rubble intercepted the energy beam. After a few rounds of this, she put both hands over her head and violently pushed them down towards the villain.

A tempest of shards, bricks, mailboxes, and burning car parts fell upon the robotic suit like a rain of destruction and chaos. I could see a steel bar penetrating the cabin, making a hole in the cristal and stopping right next to the pilot's face, who let out a shriek.

He must have been desperate since he decided to shoot all three of its rockets at Eclipse. Right away, Nova recovered from the punch to the face she had endured, extending an open palm. The aura that surrounded her whole body went to that palm, and then it shot out like a column of blueish fire. It managed to hit two of the missiles that blew up in the air, but one of them got away, flying to Eclipse.

She didn't move, and for a second I thought she'd take the hit, but three feet before it hit her, the rocket stopped dead in the air. The back of it was still letting out smoke and a small flame, but it wasn't propelling forward. Without the hero doing any move at all, the missile turned 180º in the air before rocketing back where it came from.

The mecha suit took the hit right on the chest, stumbling backward as it tried to keep its balance.

"Nova, now!"

Without wasting a single second, Nova flew until it was hovering right in front of the robot. Stopping next to its metallic knees, she crouched down with her arms and knees close to her chest, almost in a fetal position. Her aura shone with the intensity of a tiny Sun, and after a few seconds, Nova extended her limbs, releasing all the energy she had accumulated in an explosion centered in her.

The flames were intense and powerful enough to shatter the rest of the cabin's glass, and the previously damaged knee was completely obliterated. The mecha suit felt back, useless, and defeated.

Nova also fell on her knees, like she was having trouble catching her breath. Her energy aura disappeared, and she stopped hovering. She was panting, and for the first time, she looked vulnerable.

The pilot crawled out of the cabin. He was now standing in front of Nova and Eclipse, the latter slowly gliding to him.

"Y-You know, with the benefit of hindsight…"

Eclipse didn't let him finish. She twirled a finger and the pilot's mask stretched eight inches away from its face, the elastic straps still holding tight behind his head. She moved her finger back again, and the mask snapped back into place, hitting the guy right in his face, knocking him out cold.

I saw Eclipse sigh and approach her sister, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, don't worry," said Nova, and the blue flames appeared around her body again, covering it with a soft, glowing halo of energy.

And then, they both turned in my direction.

All the action had happened so fast, so much so that part of me was still processing it. Even so, as stunning as their display of power had been, it was hard to feel excited when I was carrying the wounded, bloodied body of my adoptive brother, my best friend. The tears had never stopped running down.

They both flew in my direction, their golden manes waving in the wind. They knelt next to me, taking a look at the child's body I carried on my lap. Nova put two fingers on Clyde's neck.

"Eclipse, lay him down, fast," she demanded.

I felt Clyde's body moving out of my grip. My instinctive reaction was to tighten my grip on him, but I soon realized that these were Eclipse's powers, so I let her move him. I thought she'd gently put him on the ground, but instead, she made him hover like he was lying on an invisible table.

To my absolute shock, Nova took Clyde's face and applied mouth-to-mouth breathing while one of her hands lit up with blue energy and she pressed it against my brother's chest. She kept going for a few seconds until she pressed a bit further, and Clyde's chest seemed to absorb the energy. His whole body shook, and Nova moved away, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.

"Eclipse, take him to the hospital right away. He's stable but needs urgent medical attention."

A huge sense of relief washed over me, and I let out what seemed to be two weeks' worth of air in my lungs. I thought I'd lost him. I thought I had killed Clyde just like I killed Ace Savvy.

Eclipse didn't seem to share my relief though. She looked at me with great, evident pain and worry in her eyes, and then she turned to look at her sister. She studied her for a few instants, before taking a step closer to me and putting an arm around my shoulders.

"Nova, he didn't—"

"Eclipse, take this kid to the hospital. Now," she interrupted, standing up. Eclipse hugged me tighter.

"It was an accident, he didn't mean for this to happen!"

"I said take him away!"

Nova's aura flared up for a second. Eclipse gave me one last look before she let go of me and nodded. She moved her hand, and Clyde's body moved closer to her before they both flew away into the night, leaving me alone with Nova.

"Hold on, I need to go!" I said, trying to run after them, but instead, I ran into Nova's immovable arm. I looked at her, and for the first time, I noticed she had an ugly bruise on her right cheek, with a small cut where a thin line of blood poured from.

"I clearly told you to stay away from Tetherby," she harshly spat at me. "What the hell did you think you'd do?"

"I-I…" I had to clear my throat, rubbing my forearm against my eyes to wipe out the tears. "N-Nova, listen, T-Tetherby, h-h-he's got a plan to—"

"I don't care what you think you know!" She said, pushing a finger to my chest, sending me one foot back. "Do you have any idea of what you've done?!"

"N-Nova—"

"Look around you!" She opened her arms wide, pointing at the burning, destroyed street. "You've caused thousands of dollars in damages! You've alerted Tetherby that we've been after him!"

"We?"

"You attacked his secret lab, so now he's gonna find a new lair to keep all his secret experiments! How are we gonna find them now, huh? Do you think this is a game? Do you think being a hero is all fun and games?"

"Of course not!"

"Then stop acting like a child!" She yelled, her aura glowing brighter. "The day you put on the mask and went out to fight, you stopped being a kid! You're a hero now, and you need to act like one! This job is dangerous, demanding, and if you don't take it seriously you can end up killing someone! It would have been a tragedy if you died, but if it wasn't for me and Eclipse, that other kid would have been dead too!"

She was absolutely right, of course. And that reality was so undeniable and heavy that it left me speechless. I had nothing to say against it. My silence seemed to upset her even more.

"Is that it? Aren't you going to say anything?"

"I…" The words wouldn't come to me. All I could do was to keep crying heavy tears of frustration and regret.

Nova snorted.

"I thought I could trust you," she said, sounding hurt. "I thought you could be a worthy successor of Ace Savvy."

She lifted off the ground, looking down at me.

"I guess we both made mistakes."

And with nothing else to add, she flew away like a shooting star, leaving me alone in the middle of that broken street, a reflection of my failure as a hero. I fell on my knees, and with no one to hear me, I let out a scream of pain and frustration.


The next couple of hours were the worst in my entire life. It all happened so fast and in a very confusing way for me to fully grasp it. My memory was a great nebula of events that mixed and overlap with each other inside my mind, and honestly, it's hard to make a full timeline of what happened throughout the night.

I know that somehow I got back to where I left my bag with normal clothes. I put my superhero costume away and ran as fast as I could to the hospital. Once there, I went through hell until a nurse told me that Clyde was indeed there. Unfortunately, they refused to say anything more to me unless my parents were there.

I didn't dare to call them. I gave the nurse my home number for her to call them. She took me to a waiting room and even offered me a mug of hot chocolate, which I never accepted but she brought me anyway. She stayed with me, asking lots of questions, trying to figure out what had happened to us, but I had nothing to say. I couldn't. I was just trying to prepare myself for what would become the worst moment of my life.

I knew my parents had arrived way before I saw them. Their screaming and crying could be heard above all the noise and chaos inside the hospital. I didn't want to see them. I didn't want to face them. I left the mug aside and tried to hide, hugging my knees against my chest and lowering my head.

Of course, it wasn't very hard to find the one kid with white hair.

"LINCOLN! LINCOLN, OH MY GOD!"

Two pairs of arms surrounded me, shaking me from side to side, four hands roaming over my body as if they were trying to make sure that I was complete, that I didn't have any part missing. And then they both yelled questions at me at the same time.

"WHERE WERE YOU?!"

"WHY WEREN'T YOU AT HOME?!"

"WHAT WERE YOU DOING?!"

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US?!"

"WHY?!"

"WHAT HAPPENED TO CLYDE?!"

"I-It wasn't his fault," I said, trying to find my voice. "I-It's… it's all my fault… H-He followed me…"

"WHERE?!"

"WHY DID YOU LEAVE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY, LINCOLN?!"

I was overwhelmed by the situation. There were too many questions to answer, and I didn't have the strength of mind in me to come up with answers. I had no way of explaining what had happened. I could only cry as they bombarded me with questions, trying to understand what happened, and their desperation kept making me more and more anxious, especially because I knew it was all my fault.

Something they quickly caught upon.

"HOW COULD YOU BE SO IRRESPONSIBLE TO LEAVE HOME IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?!"

"YOU PUT YOURSELF IN DANGER!"

"AND NOW YOUR BROTHER IS IN SURGERY!"

Up until then, no one had told me what was going on with Clyde. For some reason, I had assumed that he would be in a room, being treated for his cuts and wounds. But… a surgery? How bad had the accident been?

Was he still in danger of dying?

Everything that came after that sentence is confusing. I can't remember exactly what happened. I know that at some point a doctor came to ask my parents to calm down and leave me alone. He asked me what had happened to us, but when he saw I wasn't in a position to reply, he let me be. He must have told my parents that I needed to rest or something, since at some point a neighbor came to the hospital to take me home. I didn't want to go, I wanted to be with Clyde, but I didn't have energies to argue. Ignoring what people told me to do had gotten me in that position in the first place.

I don't remember the ride home. I don't remember if she invited me to stay in her home or if I fought until she let me stay home alone. I do remember my parents warning me to stay home until they were back, and that they would call me as soon as they had any news on Clyde. I don't remember them saying they loved me.

I couldn't sleep at all. I spent hours with my head against my pillow with no success. I went to Clyde's bed, trying to picture the two of us together like we always did whenever one of us had a nightmare or a terrible day, but not even then could I find peaceful slumber. The emptiness beside me was only making me more and more miserable.

When the morning light slipped through the window and bathed my room, I decided there was no point in trying to fall asleep anymore. Instead, I went to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. I didn't feel hungry, but I needed something to distract myself. I had my phone in my hand, not wanting to miss a call from my parents. No call came, though, which only fueled my worries.

I went to the living room, let myself fall on the couch, and I turned on the TV, looking for a cartoon or something to distract myself. Of course, the universe didn't' want me to be happy, so the moment I turned on the TV, the first thing I saw was a security footage video of me kicking a security guard in the face.

"ACE SAVVY ATTACKS PRIVATE SECURITY EMPLOYEES" the graph read, as the news reporter —who, oddly enough, wasn't Katherine Mulligan— gave an explanation that ended up burning any glimpse of hope I had left in me.

"...trespassed with no authorization into a warehouse that belongs to Tetherby Industries. According to official sources from the company, the warehouse was used to store vaccines and food that the Social Action Department within the company distributed to homeless shelters and child services. The security footage clearly shows the young hero identified as Ace Savvy attacking startled security guards that didn't dare take action against a child."

Vaccines and food! For the love of God! There was NO WAY they could prove that, right? The media would investigate and get to the bottom of it, they wouldn't fall for such an obvious lie… right?

"The police department has called for an arrest order on the new Ace Savvy, who's also facing charges of damages to private property and aggravated assault. He is also being investigated for the damages he provoked on a nearby street when, according to witnesses, his explosive deck had a technical malfunction as he was leaving the area."

I slapped my face. Witnesses? There was no one in the street! It was all a big, fat lie! Was police really looking for me based on nothing but the lies that Tetherby and their employees said?

"Thank you so much, Jessica, and thanks for coming here on such short notice."

"Thank you, David, and I hope you can get in contact with Katherine Mulligan as soon as possible."

"So do we. Let's move on now to international news…"

I muted the TV, stopping myself moments before I threw the remote control against a wall. Right then, I thought I had reached the bottom of the barrel, that I had fallen as deep in disgrace as it was humanly possible.

But then my phone started to ring, and I soon found out that there was still a long way to keep falling. I took desperately grabbed the phone, thinking it was one of my dads trying to tell me how Clyde's operation had gone. I was hoping with all my heart that they were good news, but I was also preparing myself for… not so good news.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a call from my parents, but instead from someone that had been living rent-free in my head for several months, and oddly, hadn't come up in my thoughts at all during the entire night.

Jordan. And the moment I read her name, the weight of my unfulfilled promises brought down my mood even more, if that was even possible. I hadn't finished my part of the project. The same project we had been working on for almost two months, and that we had to present this morning in front of the entire class to show our progress. The same progress that I promised the day before I would finish writing down on my own, rejecting her help, letting her know that she could trust me.

Yet someone else I had severely disappointed. I just couldn't pick up her call. I canceled it, and just in case, I muted our chat. I couldn't speak to her or own up to the fact that I failed her, and that all these weeks of hard work had been in vain, probably getting a terrible grade in this particular check-in instance.

I was the worst human being on planet Earth.


I spent a couple of hours spiraling down in a sea of depression and guilt. I felt no hunger, sleep, or tiredness. I couldn't feel anything but negative emotions crashing inside of me, like tides in the middle of a storm. Even in that state, I realized I couldn't stay put and keep drowning in misery. I needed to do something to distract myself, to get away from such negative feelings.

Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed our basketball and went to the backyard to shoot some hoops. Even without being entirely focused, my effectiveness was a stunning 100%. Every shot was a double-pointer.

I should've known that wasn't a bright idea. The fact that I didn't need to focus to score meant that my mind was free to roam and busy itself with thoughts. My main worry was regarding my status as a superhero. Had I forfeited that title? I didn't really know how could I possibly let myself keep working as a night vigilante. The police were after me. Public opinion would surely turn against me after those news reports. My brother had been severely injured and was, apparently, still struggling to survive. I had failed my loved ones. I failed Nova and Eclipse, ruining their chances of being true heroines and capture Tetherby the right way.

And all for what? What had I actually accomplished? I didn't have any definitive proof that Tetherby had given the guns to Wild Card Willy. I only found out that Tetherby had some long-term plan to get in charge of the security forces, and that he was developing all sorts of weapons to fight metahumans. Sentinel Project, I think was called?

Thinking about it made me realize that the mecha-suit I had faced was probably part of the second phase in said project. A robotic suit that was able to fight any metahuman. It was a force to be reckoned with, one that had almost taken me out of business. Nova and Eclipse's timely intervention was the only thing that saved me from certain death.

Second realization: Tetherby had come up with that lie about my deck of cards causing all the destruction on the streets because he didn't want the world to know that three teenage heroes had obliterated his last-generation asset against metahumans. It wasn't exactly great publicity for a project that he hadn't been able to sell yet.

The last thing I had found out by eavesdropping on him was that he was interested in learning about the past and origin of Ace Savvy. He mentioned something about a truth serum and someone to pay a visit to get some clues on Ace Savvy's life. Who could he be talking about?

"There you are!"

The voice spoke just as I was about to shoot at the hoop from the three-points line. I didn't even need to turn around to recognize that precious voice, which now sounded more furious than I've ever heard her. I didn't want to look at her in the eye, she was the last person I wanted to see right then.

"If you're good enough to play basketball you at least could've texted me back and explain why you didn't go to school, or why you didn't send me your part of the project!"

I let the ball slip out of my grasp, bouncing away from me. My arms weighed a tonne all of a sudden, and the only thing I could do was dropping my head and let the weight of my shame sink me lower, accepting every well-deserved insult that Jordan would throw at me. I couldn't even blame her for coming into my backyard unannounced. She probably heard the sound of the basketball bouncing in the concrete.

"The teacher failed us!" She said, stopping a few feet behind me. "At least Clyde sent his part to Stella last night! If you had something to do, you could have told me! I offered you my help! Do you have any idea of all the trouble I'll be getting with my parents because of this? I'll be lucky if they ever let me go out to play Dungeons and Dragons with you guys again!"

Great. I could add all these problems I caused to the girl I liked to the long list of disappointments that I had caused in less than twenty-four hours. I squeezed my fists, and my eyes itched with the treacherous tears that threatened to fall.

"Is that it? Aren't you going to say anything? Lincoln, just tell me what happened. Why didn't you talk to me? Why didn't you go to school? Lincoln? Lincoln! At least have the decency to look at me!"

I guessed I owed her that much. Breathing in, I summoned the courage to turn around and look at her in the eye. The least I could do was to look at her as I received any insult she had prepared for me.

I was ready for her to insult me, to hit me, to tell me she didn't want to ever see me again, or that we could no longer be friends. Whatever punishment was waiting for me, I'd take it. I looked her in the eye and I had to admit, even when she was angry she looked pretty. Whatever anger she felt though didn't seem to last, and a shade of worry painted her face.

"Lincoln… what happened to you?"

It took me a second to understand what she was talking about. I thought maybe my eyes were red for all the crying, or I had eyebags for the lack of sleep, but her wincing expression made me remember that my battle had left me with many, many small cuts throughout my cheeks, forehead, and chin. Nothing too serious, I had even forgotten about them.

I didn't want to answer her, though. This wasn't about me, it was about how much I failed her as a partner and a friend.

"Jordan, I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

My throat was dry and sore after crying for the entire night and morning. I heard myself and couldn't believe how pathetic I sounded. I needed to show myself as someone reliable and under control in front of Jordan, but once again I was aware of how weak and how much of a mess I really was. I didn't think it was possible for me to have any more tears to shed, that I had already filled my daily quota, but I was seemingly wrong.

I covered my face with both hands, not wanting her to see me cry, to see me in such a vulnerable state. My day was going from bad to worse. Couldn't I get five minutes without everything going wrong for me?

"Lincoln, are you okay? What's wrong?"

She walked next to me, placing her soft hands on my shoulders. At my evident silence —broken only by my whimpering sobs—, she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a hug I was too weak to refuse. I hugged her back, crying louder, opening my heart out for her, even at the risk of looking like a wimp.

Even though I didn't want to, I desperately needed someone to vent with.


"...and they still haven't called me," I finished explaining, my eyes lost in the glass of water Jordan had brought me from the kitchen.

We were sitting in the living room, in front of the muted TV. She dragged me there, trying to calm me down, spoken softly to me like I was a little kid. When she asked me what had happened, I decided to share part of the truth.

The story I told her was that I had snuck out of the house in the middle of the night —refusing to explain what I was doing—, that Clyde had followed me without me knowing, and that because of it, we were involved in an accident —that I gave no details about.

"Oh, God…" she said, covering her mouth with her hands before launching forward and giving me a side hug, her head resting on my shoulder. "Oh, Lincoln, I'm so sorry! I had no idea! I was… I was so focused on the project… I should've known you wouldn't miss it unless something bad had happened…"

"Don't try to justify me," I said, resting my head on hers and closing my eyes to enjoy the soft smell of her shampoo. "This is all my fault. I should've finished my part in time. I should've sent it to you last night. I shouldn't have gone out. And now… now you got a bad gade and C-Clyde… Clyde…"

"Lincoln, you guys had an accident," she said, holding me tighter. "It's not your fault."

"It is!" I said, louder than I intended. "Jordan, you don't understand. I went to places I shouldn't have gone. I should've stayed home and kept my promises. I was selfish, I put myself before others. I failed everyone. Clyde, my parents, myself… I failed you."

Jordan broke the hug, and right away I found myself longing for the warmth of her body against mine. She knelt on the sofa, took the glass away from me, and held one of my hands. With her other hand, she slithered the tip of her fingers over my cheek, ghosting over the small crusts on the cuts I had.

"Lincoln, you're not perfect," she told me, her green eyes looking at me as deep as the ocean. "You make mistakes, you mess up, and you get hurt. You know that makes you?"

"An idiot?"

"A human just like everyone else," she corrected me, gripping my hand tighter. "You're not invincible. No one is. And yeah, sometimes things don't go the way we want, you know? I get it. We all take our chances, and… and sometimes they set us back. But the fact that you mess up doesn't define you."

She closed her moments for an instant, sighing like she was also going through an emotional moment, for some reason.

"What defines you is that you're always struggling to become a better person, to improve. And that's all anyone can ask from you. To give your best. You always put your friends and loved ones first, and that makes you special and different from most people."

"I… I don't know what you're talking about. That's not how I see myself."

"It is how we all see you. How I see you."

"Really?"

"Of course! Lincoln, you were the one that was willing to sacrifice Silver Edge just so the rest of the party could escape. If that's not being heroic… then I don't know what is."

With my morality being as low as it was, those simple words were a tender touch to my soul, a small fire in the middle of the frozen glacier that surrounded my heart. Even though part of me didn't think I was in any position to receive compliments, I couldn't help to cheer up a bit.

"Heroic or stupid, one of the two," I said, making us both chuckle. "I never imagined that a horde of zombies would attack us from the other side of the bridge and a killer worm would fall from the ceiling."

"Well, that's the power of misdirection. Stella made us focus so much on looking down that we didn't check the ceiling."

"She's a great DM."

"And you're a great person. Don't forget about it."

Had I been braver, had I left my heart guide me and overcome my fears, if I wasn't the insecure coward I was, I would have tried to kiss her right there. Alas, I didn't. The idea of her rejecting me was too painful for me to take that risk.

So, blushing lightly at the compliments I received and the mental picture of reducing the distance between us until our lips pressed together, I turned my head, too embarrassed to look at her.

And that's when I saw the burning building.

"Wow, what happened?" I said, breaking the spell that tethered us.

"Oh, wow," she said, taking the remote and unmuting the TV.

"BREAKING NEWS: EXPLOSION AT TETHERBY INDUSTRIES WAREHOUSE".

The entire block where Thetherby's warehouse had been last night was now engulfed in fire, with the flames spreading to some nearby buildings. A young reporter was doing the coverage of it one block away, with the fire and the flames in the background.

"The firefighter team is working at full speed trying to control the fire, but we've been confirmed that the main hypothesis is that the damages caused last night by the so-called young hero Ace Savvy compromised the gas pipes system. The entire building exploded approximately fifteen minutes ago, spreading debris and fire all around the area. So far, there are fifteen reported injured, and the security forces are working as hard as they can to access the compromised buildings to save as many civilians as possible. They estimate… Attention! Attention! The young duo of superheroines Nova and Eclipse have just arrived to help with the rescue teams!"

The camera moved around frantically to show the two figures flying through the sky and into the burning buildings to do some heroic acts.

"This is amazing! The two heroes have come to our rescue! I can't believe it, this is fabulous!"

"Thad guy seems pretty excited," said Jordan, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it looks like he's never covered any hero in action.

"They're all usually covered by that lady in yellow. What's her name? I don't know, but it's pretty weird that she's not there right now."

"Yeah, that's—"

I didn't finish my sentence, since I had just had the final realization about what had happened the night before. Tetherby said he needed his truth serum to get answers from someone that could guide them into Ace Savvy's life. And I knew for a fact that there was only one person that knew his secret identity besides me: Katherine Mulligan, who oh just so happened to be MIA from the news since the morning.

She and I were the only people that knew where Ace Savvy's manor was, the place where the Cube that had granted me my powers was being hidden. The same manor that the original Ace Savvy had asked me to burn down to ashes, a request that I hadn't fulfilled. And now, there was a possibility that an evil businessman with plans of building an anti-metahumans army could get his hands on an object capable of turning people into supersoldiers.

My career as a superhero was over. I had failed my parents, my brother, my friends, the girl of my dreams, my city, the other heroes. I had failed everyone.

But I couldn't fail Ace Savvy once again.

"Jordan, thanks for coming here, but I need to be alone."

"I don't want you to be alone," she said, still holding my hand, "I know you—"

"Please."

She bit her lip. "Are you sure?"

For the first time in the entire day, a spark of determination and conviction had lit up within me.

"Yeah. I know what I need to do."

It was time to deal out some justice.