Finals. Blegh. Hero High School was, unfortunately, not a high school just for prospective heroes. Instead, it was a high school built and designed by urban planners and had had about ten minutes of input from Hero. As far as I knew, the only thing remotely tinker-tech was the recursive perpetual motion device that powered the high school and the Endbringer shelter it sat atop. Of course, if the administration was to be believed, he practically built the place from the ground up with his bare hands. As the school occupied a longish wedge with the point where two nearly parallel (but not quite!) streets intersected, any sports activities had to be held at the nearby Lincoln Park.

New transfers seemed to usually take some time adjusting to a high school that was more tall than wide, but it was pretty normal for me by the end of my Freshman year. As I rode the elevator to the ground floor to catch my bus home, I heard the distant rumble of thunder. Great, It'd probably be pouring by the time I had to make the dash from the bus to the apartment building. As the elevator doors opened I heard...fireworks? I stopped only a few steps short of the outside door as the dawning realization of what I was actually hearing made my legs week and my mouth suddenly dry. I could handle cape fights or PRT action in theory, I'd experienced them a few times before. I'd even seen Legend and Alexandria briefly in a fight with Filter back when the Masks had still been an active gang in Chicago. This time was different, this time I knew that I should get involved. If nothing else, I could assist in rescue work.

The students around me had reached the same conclusion that I had and I could feel the tension in the room. A few people started talking about the Endbringer shelter, and, honestly, it made sense...but I knew that unless the situation out there was dire, it wouldn't be opened. The vice-principal (what was his name? Mr. Sommers?) was pushing his way through the crowd toward the front doors and I suddenly I knew what was coming. I had to make a decision quickly or it would be made for me. It looked like maybe a third of the student body was already outside and I even saw that some of the buses had left before I had arrived, but the tide of students outside was starting to grow nervous. Soon, they would be pushing their way inside, and Mr. Sommers would be blocking anyone from exiting. It would be so easy to just...wait. Not go out there. Wait until I was trained and had a team to back me up.

I found myself pushing open the door and stepping out. I had to help. I made my way toward the corner. If I could get around to the other side of the school, I could possibly get clear enough to make my way toward the battle without people seeing me and thinking I was crazy. If I could find a nook or alleyway somewhere so that I could change into...what? I didn't have a costume yet. I had the hoodie from the previous night, but I had given the mask back to uncle Jason. Another crashing noise reverberated off the buildings. It was getting closer. As everyone looked toward the source of the sound, I slipped around the acute corner and started a fast jog along the side of my school that would hopefully bring me closer to the conflict but away from the eyes of my classmates.

The gunfire had mostly died down to the occasional single burst, but I could still hear the occasional discharge of whatever conspicuous power or device was generating those crashes. Whatever it was, it was loud, and it was sudden. The streets were beginning to take on a deserted look. Business signs and marquis were turned off and there wasn't a person in sight. Only an idiot would be out in this. But it gave me the opportunity I needed to improvise something to conceal my identity. Ducking into an alley between buildings that was only a few feet wide, I made my way toward the other side and then looked up. I studied the few windows there were on this side of the building for a few moments to ensure I wasn't being watched, then glanced both ways down the alleyway before bagging my shirt and shorts and immediately unbagging blue jeans and the black hoodie inside out.

An observer (hopefully there were none) would have maybe caught a brief glimpse of my underwear and bra between the green and blue of my shirt and shorts to the black and blue of the hoodie and jeans. That only left a way to conceal my identity. I remembered several years ago for Halloween having to help my cousin Chris with his ninja costume. He had waited until the last moment to find a costume, and so had had to improvise one. Once he looked up a way to contort a t-shirt into a ninja mask, he had quickly settled on his costume. I was pretty sure I could remember how it worked...

With only a thought, the "mask" appeared on my face in the proper configuration. I felt around to ensure it was covering all the proper parts and realized that the sleeves at the back of my head that were supposed to be in a tight knot were still a bit loose, but otherwise it seemed to work as I had envisioned it. I tightened the sleeves and poked my head out of the opposite end of the alley than I had come in. Good, the streets still seemed mostly empty. As I made my way to the next cross-street, I suddenly heard a woman yell, followed immediately by a blinding flash and a bone-rattling clap.

Instinctively, my head snapped up and toward the sound. Ah, that explained why it had sounded like thunder. It actually was thunder. And lightning. Voltaic was hovering only about three hundred yards away, high enough to be seen above the four-story building across the street from me. Voltaic was a solo villain that had gone to ground (pun only slightly intended) more than a year ago after causing enough damage that the city had declared a state of emergency for a day or two. His costume was an eclectic mixture of metal body armor with dozens of what looked like old TV antennas sticking out, mostly from his back or shoulders. Over his face he wore what looked like the 80's idea of a futuristic visor that came down to his nose and a glowing blue line across where his eyes should be. Honestly, he looked a bit like a stylized porcupine.

Obviously, he was fighting somebody to be throwing lightning like that. I had no place in this battle, but I could go ensure that nobody was injured from that lightning. Slinking as best I could toward the nearest street that could get me a visual on the damage it had done, I noticed out of the corner of my eye Voltaic seemed to have decided to move on and turned to continue flying the direction he presumably had been. Just as he passed next to a taller building than the ones around it, I heard another yell and saw Voltaic suddenly change course and swivel his body to look around. Just then I heard a gunshot coming from what sounded like the building he had just passed.

I still hadn't seen who he'd been fighting, but at this point I could guess. Echolocate was a relatively new hero that could teleport to anywhere her voice reached. Some people on the Parahumans Online boards seemed to think she had a Thinker rating too, but the rumor was never officially confirmed. I'd have to remember to ask uncle Jason about that later. The gunshot seemed to do something, because Voltaic fell out of the sky and disappeared again from my view shortly before I heard another yell. Heaven forbid if that poor lady ever got laryngitis.

I rounded the corner to see the bent and distorted form of a trashcan with some of its garbage on fire and black scorch-marks around it, but other than that the lightning bolt didn't seem to have done any serious damage. Shrugging I made my way toward the most recent conflict between Echolocate and Voltaic. Just because it hadn't done any major damage this time didn't mean it wouldn't in the future if they continued fighting. I could pull clean-up duty at least.

After only a few steps, however, I heard a new sound. A sort of loud pop. It was immediately followed by a ragged scream. A body appeared in front of me. It had two burn marks that had gone right through her costume and melted the skin. One was on her left shoulder, and the other right above her right hip. I rushed forward, but didn't really know what to do. I could tell she was still breathing. Short, fast breaths that looked like she was hyperventilating, and her body was twitching like she was in severe pain. My vision was blurring for some reason as I stood there uselessly, grasping for what to do. Tears. Tears were falling from my eyes and I wasn't really ready for this at all. What...how did you treat electricity burns? Were you supposed to cover them up? There seemed to be a lot of pus and blood, maybe they needed to dry out? I wasn't sure if anything I had would help or if it would just hurt. After all, the clothes I had in my grab-bag weren't sterilized.

I decided that I had to try. I took a deep breath to focus, and then unbagged a white under-shirt that I hadn't worn since washing it. I tried to rip it at first, but of course I couldn't just rip a shirt in half like some sort of Brute, so I brought out the kitchen knife and began cutting it. Once I had a cut, I found that I could rip it so I bagged the knife. "Okay Echolocate. Stay with me." I said, not even really sure if she was conscious anymore or not. I gently laid the shirt on her shoulder wound and then brought it around through her armpit so that I could secure it. Something from movies I had seen reminded me that I should make it tight, so I gently looped it into a knot, then pulled hard to tighten it. Echolocate screamed and disappeared from in front of me.

Spinning, I tried to locate her, looking up and down, but I couldn't see her anymore. It must've been an instinctive reaction because now I didn't even know where she was to get her help. A bit scared, I bagged the other half of the shirt and unbagged my phone, then fumbled to dial 911. I wish I knew the number for the PRT, but I didn't have that memorized...but I did have uncle Jason's cell phone number. Hanging up before the other call connected, I speed-dialed uncle Jason. Myrddin.

After three rings without an answer I felt a hand grab my neck as another one wrapped around my torso. "Hang up the phone." Voltaic said.