1.4

First thing that came to mind is that somehow, I'm alive.

Second, that everything hurts. My ears were ringing, my skull was pounding and my back felt like it was just battered over and over by a sledgehammer.

Third, it hurts to breathe. My chest was killing me almost as bad as my back...its worse than the kicks I'd endured once or twice from Sophia the few times she'd gotten physical.

I try to stand and I feel like my chest had a pot of boiling water poured into it. My back was flaring like crazy, like it's on fire or something.

The sharp breath I sucked in through my teeth just made it worse.

Do I... is my rib broken?

I reach my hand up to grip the side of the box I'd landed next to. I have no clue where I am right now. Holding my breath as it's just too painful to keep breathing, I finally manage to stagger to my feet. The world swims around me with vertigo. I need help...something. Anything.

And I hear the cracking noises. A lot of them. Looking up, I see dark images blurring beside me.

Oni-Lee?

No. That whine, the whispers and the light.

My ash statues are here again. There's two of them as I half walk, half stumble forward.

Instantly, I begin to feel better. The pain in my chest is gone, the pounding in my head quiets and the burning agony in my back disappears.

I felt and heard the clang of ringing steel at the back of my helmet-covered head. The force of a swung pipe sends me face first to the ground at the foot of my statues. Instinctively, I lash out with a gout of flame and a scream, half in anger, half in surprised fear.

Lee, this one anyway, went up in flames before he could pull yet another pin, vanishing into more ash.

I stumbled to my feet, searching for more of-

Vista! I turn, rushing to get a line of sight on her past the trucks where I can hear more explosions and the sound of gunfire.

I turn the corner of the van and see five clones-

"Behind you!" I yelled, flinging my fireball her way. Vista doesn't hesitate, doesn't look back. Her experience shows as she moves, taking a single step forward, which becomes thirteen to avoid the strike that would have split her skull open as the fireball explodes, igniting another clone.

Another copy pulls a grenade, tossing it towards the retreating girl. A flick of my wrist and ash from the burning clone whips out, smacking it out of the air to explode harmlessly by the warehouse wall fifty feet away, courtesy of Vista.

I started running, and a step through the distortion of Vista's power had me right in front of him. One fist to the face lets me feel the crack and snap of bone beneath my knuckles, and see the shattering of that mask a second before he's flying through the air, already breaking into more ash.

"Fucker!" I curse,whirling around with another burst of flame, only to see Lee back flipping away. He lands on one of the van's hoods, looking at me and I can tell he's getting frustrated.

We need to limit his movements, but he keeps teleporting and leaving ash behind and—

Ash...

I smirk and I send two fireballs his direction. Oni Lee dodges to the side and flings more of his throwing knives at me mid-jump. Guy could make a career as a gymnast as he continued to back-flip away from my fireballs.

My hands are up as I ignore the little blades, feeling one bounce off my eyebrow, another off my neck. Others I felt against my knees and the inside of my bicep, probably aiming to cut an artery. This guy was out to kill. That bodycount rumor was looking more and more plausible.

I used my hands as a focus and with a thought the ash that had been gathering around us from the dozens of dead clones came to life at my call.

Then Lee appears right in front of me, pin already pulled.

The ash roils and begins to form a solid wall between us as-

It goes off, and even though the ash was still too spread to absorb the full force, its still better than the first one. This time I'm only sent flying into crates rather than breaking my ribs and God only knew what else had happened to me with that first blast.

Another Oni Lee appeared in front of me and my ash whips out, lightning fast and floods the crevices and openings of his mask. I saw his hands going to his face.

I know it's lethal to try and suffocate him, but goddamnit I don't know how else to slow him down! I pull myself out of the crate again and Vista is already shortening the distance for me, avoiding Oni Lee's clones with sprinting and using the environment against him and manipulating space.

With a front kick I send him smashing into the van behind him, tipping the damn thing over to crash onto its side. The van is crumpled, the sliding side door is all but hanging off the frame as Lee shatters like fine porcelain glass, leaving little more than a dirty gray smear on the crumpled surface.

There's a growl in my throat. Pure frustration at this point.

Then I heard a gasp behind some crates.

A gasp… I must have hit the original with my ash before he could teleport!

Both of my hands conjured two beach ball sized fireballs and flung them at the crates. The explosion sent wood chips, hay, plastic toys and money flying into the air. I heard a yell and something hit the ground hard enough for me to hear it. I run over, Vista beside me. Oni Lee was gasping for breath and ripping off his mask to try and suck down an unobstructed breath. He was huddled in a heap against the wall, cradling his ribs, almost in a fetal position. His mask is in his hands as he's all but hacking up a lung, gagging.

"Go in close," Vista said, "I'll cover you."

I nod.

With cautious steps I shift forward, watching as the parahuman coughed up something red. Looks like blood to me, but this guy-

Then there's the now familiar sensation of a grenade exploding in my face.

The force sends me flying into a wall head first and crumpled the thin metal that made up the wall of some two bit cubicle corner office.

I groan. The sound of bones cracking around me reaches my ears. That my head or skull broken? Thank god the warmth comes again. I'm honestly beginning to love my creepy, faceless statues…

Vista cries out my name as I pull myself up to my feet, seeing the smoldering ruin where Oni Lee once lay.

Nothing. He teleported and played possum with his grenades.

I hear climbing on the stair well and looked up, Oni Lee was speeding up the damn thing.

"Vista!"

"On it!" And Oni Lee was, before I even knew it at ground level two feet in front of me. Him and the whole goddamn catwalk. He was so close I didn't even need to charge to punch him. I just stepped and clocked him across the face that crumbled into ash and left my arm to punch through the metal wall.

I heard Vista cry beside me and saw Oni Lee between us; swinging her way, sword already in hand.

Too close! The Manton effect won't let her widen the distance with him and me so close to her!

"No!" I yell, reaching for him.

Without any conscious thought on my part, my ash moved faster than I ever could, the new source at my feet from the now dead Lee, rose up and covered Vista from head to toe the sword hitting her hands as she raised them in reflex, I see blood welling up from her palms as the blade dug into flesh...but it didn't go any further. She cries out in pain, pushing Lee away and towards me where I punch at the back of his skull due to the shortened distance, only to see more goddamn ash!

He appears behind her, Vista's cradling her bleeding hands up, close to her chest as the blood mulched the ash at her fingers, dragging it off her to drip onto the ground.

I grab the railing from the still lowered catwalk and rip it off with a roar and hurl it past Vista. Its spinning in the air faster than anything that size, and thrown that sloppily has any right to be. It hits him dead on!

Vista still has the presence of mind to use her power somehow. She shortens the distance between Lee and the wall behind him. He's shoved through the sheet metal, railing and all.

I don't see ash this time.

I hit him. I know I hit him damnit!

I pant as I looked at Vista. "You okay!?" I ask, going over to her panting, the adrenaline rush and the warmth within soothing my worry and concern slowly.

"Y-Yeah...It hurts but I can still move all my fingers so he couldn't have cut too deep. Get this off though!" She spat out and rubbed her eyes. "Some of it is in my eyes and mouth! Bleagh!" I waved my hand and the ash fell. She looked up at me looked completely filthy. "Oni Lee?"

Right. We can't let him escape! I run towards the hole I made with Lee's body. Vista's right behind me, clenching her fists to try and make pressure on the cuts.

I jump through and I hear Japanese or Chinese around the corner. The length of railing I'd ripped off is still there. I grab it. We run, trying to follow the voices, I don't see Lee anywhere.

There's a roar, and helicopters are hovering overhead and a search light is on us. I didn't bother looking up, knowing that it might be Miss Militia...At least...I thought so. Did the ABB have an on call helicopter?

I don't look up though, my focus is in front of me as I see several men run into an adjacent alleyway, two of them supporting another. Oni Lee.

"Get him!" Vista exclaims and the distance between me and the ABB members is suddenly nothing. The bit of railing I have in my hand is sending a surprised thug flying and into the side of another building wall before he's even realized I'm there. Some of them turn around to open fire. But Vista's ensuring that they're several hundred yards too out of range.

She shortens the distance the second the guns fall quiet and I'm swinging the piece of railing again into a shirtless asian thug's arm. I hear bones cracking and he's flying to the side and into a parked car, shattering the windows, making a dent and setting off the alarm.

The last of the men turn to shoot at me.

"Protectorate. Drop the guns and I don't shoot you!"

At the mouth of the alley, standing there staring down the barrel of an assault rifle is Miss Militia.

I couldn't keep the smile of relief off my face if I tried.

Oni Lee staggers, then, violently shoves the two men supporting him away.

He pulls a pin.

My eyes widen as I move forward.

I hear Miss Militia shoot a second before the bang goes off I'm suddenly blind and deaf. My ears are ringing, drowning out everything else and can feel myself screaming even if I can't hear it. My eyes are throbbing behind my eyelids.

Is this what a flashbang feels like?

(X)

"We surrender. No hurt us." I hear one of them plead for the upteenth time as me and Vista sit by the ambulance. The English of half of these gangsters is broken at best.

Vista's getting proper bandages as the other paramedics grab and check over the thugs we'd roughed up.

Lee's gone. Flashbang and ash left behind. Left his men there for us too. Maybe permanently deaf considering how close they were to the blast.

I breath as I brush a had a hand over my eyes. Somewhere during the fight, probably one of the many grenades to the face, my PRT sunglasses were destroyed.

Damnit, I liked those shades too!

I can still hear helicopter blades overhead and the sound of more vans pulling up. I turn, looking around the edge of the ambulance door I'm sitting beside. PRT vans and troops are coming out in force to survey the area and close it off to the public.

More specifically give early warning if ABB's leader, Lung, decided he wasn't just gonna sit and be happy at losing several hundred thousand or million dollars lying down.

"You two okay?" Asked Miss Militia as she finally finishes giving instructions to a few PRT sergeants and police officers, her assault rifle is still in her hands but its pointed to the ground.

"Yeah, Vista got a little cut up, but nothing some bandages can't heal I think."

Miss Militia sighs in relief. "I'm glad." She placed a hand on her hip. "Not everyday your first patrol draws Oni-Lee."

"No." Said a voice. "It doesn't." We turn towards the source and see Armsmaster getting off his bike. How had that thing been so quiet? Tinker Tech?

Someone else comes around the corner beside him, falling in step. I don't recognize him.

"You the rookie?" He asks. I recognize his voice now. It's Velocity.

"Yeah. That's me." Velocity smiles and placed a hand on my head. He actually ruffles it, not caring for the ash stuck to my head of hair now that I've removed the helmet.

"Well, from what I hear you made Oni Lee run away with his tail between his legs. Not many Wards can claim they did that. Let alone on their first day. Next rookie's gonna have to beat the crap out of Lung on day one to match that." He gave a toothy grin my way.

I blush at the compliment. I'm not used to them really, let alone coming from heroes. "T-Thanks...I mean, we didn't know that Oni Lee was in the warehouse. We thought it was just some normal thugs."

"A poor oversight...on my part." It seemed to pain Armsmaster to admit it. "In hindsight, it's obvious that Lung would have sent Oni Lee to oversee the transfer of one of his primary sources of funds." He looked at mine and Vista's way. "Normally Piggot would chew you out for fighting against another Parahuman, as Wards. Given the extenuating circumstances though, and the fact that you were in constant contact with us throughout your approach and none of us interceded an order for you to stand down we'll speak with her in order to soften the blow as much as possible."

"You mean me and Miss M will go talk to her while you write up a report and hide in your lab."

The power armored man turns and gives the snickering Velocity a glare.

"Thanks Armsmaster," Vista sighs in almost palpable relief. "Man, that was the one thing I was dreading the most, talking with Piggy."

"She's your director Vista, be more respectful." Miss Militia scolded. I heard the Wards making fun of Director Piggot at school, mainly in inside jokes and the like. So far I've said all of ten words to the woman. She saw me she looked at my file and dismissed me. That was about it. I can't help but wonder how bad she is, if she really is as horrible as my teammates seem to make of her.

"Well, it's still ten minutes to nine. Should we keep on our patrol?" I ask to Vista.

"After we finish patching up sure. Besides the later we get back to base the more calm Piggy will be." She stuck her tongue out at Armsmaster's disapproving frown. "Think you can make that ash healing statue again?"

"I can't make one. Not consciously anyway. We can walk over to one of the ones that came out during the fight and see if they're still 'active'.

She nods, hopping down from the back of the ambulance, being careful not to place her bandaged hands anywhere.

"Healing statues?" I heard Velocity mutter and footsteps are soon following. "Hey wait up. I wanna see this."

He follows and, to my slight surprise so does Armsmaster after a few words with Miss Militia.

We walk into the warehouse where police are setting up their scenes. Cataloguing money, car keys, damage etc etc.

I notice that they're all giving my statues a wide wide berth.

Honestly, looking at one now, I can't really blame them.

The tangle of limbs, the faceless head, with flame burning inside of it like an overgrown animal stuffed into a bird cage. It looks like something out of an old biblical tale of hell.

The whispers are not helping either.

"Well now." Velocity chimed. "That's freaky." He had a hand on his head. "Those whispers coming from that thing right?"

"Don't worry, there's no Simurgh. Read your report on the new recruit Velocity." Armsmaster chided.

I ignored him as the statue let out another ripple of light and whine. Vista held her hands out.

"It itches" she complains.

"Pull off your bandages Vista." Armsmaster demands.

She does so. And instead of an open, weeping slice over her palms there's now a dry scab of skin.

She's healed but its not as good as the effect on me. Same with the ash armor. If it could absorb a grenade blast without me dying instantly, it should have all but laughed off Oni Lee's sword strike no matter how sharp the edge or how much skill he had with it..

Is it less effective on other people? I'll need to test that out more whenever I can.

"Feel better?" I ask her. Vista touches her scabs a little.

"Yep little sore, especially when I stretch my fingers but I'm good. Got any water bottles on hand? I'm thirsty." Miss Milita heard Vista's request and called for a PRT officer to bring two bottles.

"So, we stick to the same area?" I ask Armsmaster.

"No, you'll head north. This area will scare away any criminals. Miss Militia will continue to be close by as well as-" Armsmaster turns away, looking at his watch. "-another hero. In any case, I will be heading back to my patrol for now. You get back too Velocity."

"Got it," Velocity gave off a mock salute, and if Armsmaster looked offended he didn't show it as he walked back to his bike. Who was he referring to as 'another hero'?

"Ashburn, Vista." He calls as he mounts the bike.

"You did well." He got into the bike and sped off. Thankfully he didn't notice the pink I had on my cheeks. I got praised by Armsmaster! My childhood idol!

"Okay then hun" Miss Militia said, snapping me out of it. "We can go normally, or we can get a ride in a PRT van. Preference?" She asks as she handed us two water bottles.

"Truck." Vista answers. "I've been using my power a lot tonight with Oni-Lee. Rather not risk having a headache in the morning" I nod in understanding more than agreement. I like roof hopping with her. Might have to do with the fact that I didn't have to actually risk jumping between buildings and got me a tremendous view of Brockton but I suppose there will be plenty of other opportunities for that if she was getting tired.

"Hey Miss Militia." I ask as we got in the van. She slides the door shut with a slam and turns towards me.

"Hmm?"

"Who was Armsmaster referring to?"

"What?" She raises her eyebrow.

Oh yeah she'd gone to get the water bottles when he was talking to Velocity.

"Is there another hero close by for us to call on?"

"That would be Dauntless!" Hearing her reply I look down at my watch and turned on the map function and zoomed out, seeing our moving white dot and a green dot to the north of us. That must be him. I heard he was an up-and-coming hero here in the Bay who has the ability to empower I genuinely have no idea on the specifics or limits of that.

Before long we're on top of a building with a view of a massive trainyard before us. The trainyard was Merchant territory, one of the very few held on by the drug dealing gang. (And by very few, I mean this is the only one).

"I'll be to the south if you need me, Dauntless is east. I doubt anyone's luck so bad that you'd run into two capes in one night-" She joked with a smile "-but if you come across any of the trio make sure to call us. None is as dangerous as Oni-Lee, but its best to be safe than sorry." The trio she's referring to must be Skidmark, Squealer, and Mush: The Merchant Parahumans. I give her a thumbs up and Vista waves, she slams the door shut and the van takes off again.

"Okay." I sighed, looking down at Vista. "Keep to the roofs?"

"Sure. Let's check in with Dauntless on an update of the area though." I nodded at her suggestion and watched as she activated her watch as we were climbing a roof with a single step. "Dauntless, you copy?".

"Hmmm? Who is-Ah." Said a voice over the watch. It sounded male, early-mid twenties. "Hi Vista, seeing another signature with you. That the new girl in the Wards?"

Is that what I am going to be identified as? New Girl? Well, better than the titles the Winslow Trio gave me once upon a time.

"Yup!" She grins even though he couldn't see it. "This is Ashburn. We're here on a patrol change."

"I got the run down from Velocity. You tackling Oni Lee and making him run off is quite a feat." He sounds impressed, and I couldn't help but blush again. I saw Vista smile as we began walking on the roof tops.

"Thanks...but Vista did more than me on keeping him and his gang members confused and disorganized. She's a huge help."

"Noted. Anyways, what's up?"

"We'd like an update on the area." Vista explains. "The iron works where me and Ashburn were patrolling are swarming with cops right now after the fight. Fat chance of any criminal activity there."

"Sure. I'll give ya an update in person." Me and Vista perked up.

"Nice!"

"Thank you sir."

"Yeah, don't call me 'sir'. I ain't Armsmaster so there's no need for formalities. Plus it makes me sound old. Dauntless is fine for now." I could tell he is smiling over the watch. "And stay where you are. I'm closing in."

"He's coming closer to us Ashburn." Vista said, looking at her watch's map. I turn off the comm and saw the green dot with the icon of a spear crossing over a shield approaching our position. I turn towards the direction and over the stationary train cards as a man hopping car to car and...hovering? No, flying between each car as his boots glowed.

More Tinker tech? I see him land in front of us and I finally get a good look at Dauntless in the flesh. He was tall, like, a good half a head above me tall. That's almost a novelty now. He's dressed in white and gold, and his helmet is modeled after the ancient Greek or Spartan style, with slits for the eyes, a band of metal covering his nose, and a slit running down the lower half of his face. A strip of metal crested the top, like a mohawk.

I gotta get me Tinker tech at some point. It's just too cool.

"Alright here you are." He declares as his feet hit the gravel of the roof. What little I could see of his eyes beneath the helmet showed he was smiling as much as his voice gave that inflection from his tone.

He held out his hand as he walks over. "Hi, officially. Dauntless, at your service."

"Ta-Ashburn!" I almost squeak, holding out my own hand to shake his.

"Sorry for not coming to see you in person before. The 'shiny new Ward' has kinda gone into the background with all the work Piggot's been throwing at us recently."

"I have noticed you guys have been gone a lot more recently." Vista drawled, a hand on her hip. "What's that about? And what am I chopped liver? Say hi to me too!"

Dauntless laughs. "Sorry sorry. And yeah. Probably haven't heard but there's a new drug hitting the streets. Foreign. From Germany or one of the other countries near enough as to not make much of a difference. The addiction and dependence rate is absolutely insane. Detox barely works and cold turkey withdrawal has an almost forty-percent chance of causing the victim permanent brain damage or death."

"That...sounds…"

"Nasty as hell, yeah." He finishes for me. "We got two cases of it last month and since then Piggot has been pushing us hard to find the primary supplier and bring him down. We think its the Merchants. But the Director doesn't care if she's got to send us to go toe to toe with the ABB or E88 if it comes down to it. This stuff is crazy bad. Much of Eastern Europe's economy is slowly eroding beneath its feet as the addiction rate spikes."

"And the Bay isn't exactly a booming economy to begin with." I mutter, remembering all the hardships my dad faced every day trying to keep the dockworkers afloat.

"Got it in one." He looked like he was still grinning under that helmet despite the morose topic. "So yeah. I, and I'm sure everyone else on the team is sorry that we haven't been able to come welcome you in person. I know Assault and Battery enjoy greeting Wards and showing em around. Even Shadow Stalker for what she was worth."

"Assault teases that its Battery's maternal instincts kicking in." Vista 'whispers' conspiratorially in my ear. Loud enough for the people in another building to hear probably.

"Then she hits him." Dauntless finished, a smirk evident on his face. Then he shook his head. "Ahh but we're wasting time and you're still on patrol. Right, quick rundown. Since you guys took down Oni-Lee tonight we'll be keeping your route light and short. Guys deserve a break." He brought up a map on his own wrist watch, booming it out to be semi-holographic.

I didn't know it could do that…

"Alright my patrol route is gonna be taking me through the train tracks, and the tower heights neighborhood." Tower heights was an old ghetto around here. Named so for the two apartment complexes that literally towered over the near empty train yard tracks that separated them from half the bay like a lined no-mans-land.

"Miss Militia will be going through Madison Avenue and cutting through the train tombstones."

Train tombstones was an off color joke referring mainly to the bay's boat graveyard. The Train tombstones was a stretch of the tracks dedicated to storage. What little cargo there was to store anyway.

Mainly it was used to refer to the trains that were parked there for weeks or even months on end without cargo to haul.

The worse the docks got, the worse the trains got. The worse the trains got, the harder it became to convince anyone to trust them with cargo in order to get them moving again.

"You guys will take the north side apartments. Not the best neighborhoods but not the worst either. They rarely have criminal activity so unless you're just magnets for trouble there shouldn't be anothe-"

*Click*

The sound was so startling I actually felt myself jump a bit.

Then I realize what exactly that was. So did Dauntless and Vista.

Incredulous, the three of us turn...Well...me and Vista turn. Dauntless just brought his head up from where he'd been looking down at the holo to point out the routes.

We were staring at an open window of an adjacent apartment. A girl no older than Vista herself peering out with a camera phone and a slack jaw to complete the image of shock.

I look at the two beside me. "Uhhh...what do we do?"

We stare at each other.

After a second Dauntless and Vista just shrug.

Evidently I'm the only one concerned about this.

"Anyway. Your routes gonna be from-"

Yup yup...definitely the only one concerned.

…

You know...considering that we're meant to fight Endbringers and self-cloning/teleporting suicide bombing ninja on a regular basis...I have to determine that there might be something wrong with me seeing as how the one primary concern in my head for the tail end of my first night out on patrol is that I hope that picture doesn't end up on the internet tonight...or ever.

I really don't want to wind up on a thread on some random website.