Hero Super

A small mound of flasks haphazardly dumped on the floor and a single table filled with a handful of powers, those were the only things left from the once-roomful of flasks Calvin had been salivating in front of not even half an hour ago. The few hundred flasks he’d already gone through were already in his pocket, bar the ones he’d still have to sift through and the ones he could absorb.

Calvin’s face, although hiding behind the [Plain White Mask] magically merged on his skin, was very obviously sporting an expression akin to a child's when they're not getting the gift they wanted for their birthday.

Slacked shoulders, mildly lethargic movements, and almost robotic sighs— his very vibe clued even the half-rotten corpses sitting next door about his current state of discontent. If not that, the fact that he was quite loudly murmuring his disappointment.

“Fucking useless,” he murmured to himself as his hand stretched lazily to the mound, grabbing a flask and smacking it on the table. A panel popped up in front of him, which he subsequently ignored in favour of the label taped to the flask itself.

“'E516 - Extra arm.’ Just an arm? No hands?”

He raised his head slightly, taking an uninterested peek at the panel, doubling back as the name caught his attention.

Super Absorb

Super Power: A Hand and a Half detected. Absorb?

Yes No

“So there is a hand,” he muttered, turning back to the flask and flipping it.

Taped underneath the metal, on every single flask even, was a text too small to be written legibly by a normal person. Like the disclaimer on a medicine bottle listing all the possible side effects it could cause, there was an addendum that was basically the same thing.

“'Induces delusions of a phantom limb, a fourth one that they can control. Testing proved no reliable evidence of the limb’s existence.’ Wow. A superpower and a mental illness. What a deal.”

He pocketed the power and grabbed the next flask, colour returning to his face as he saw the name on it.

Super Absorb

Fragmented Essence detected. Absorb?

Yes No

“Yes,” he celebrated quietly before mentally pressing Yes on the panel.

The panel closed, succeeded in an instant by a coolness emanating from the flask. A thin string of white seeped out of the corner of the flask, swimming towards his chest and disappearing inside. He felt the coolness partly fill him for a moment before disappearing in a blink.

'That makes six, I think? So it should be 1.2’

Super Information

Super Name None Super Attributes

Super Status Alive, Spirit-severance, Slight Fatigue(Spirit, Mind, Body), Sleep-Deprivation, Promise Stone Super Body 2 (+1 Plain White Shirt) (+0.3 Promise Stone)

Super Quest Road to Heroism IV, A True Hero's Name, An Unknown Power Super Mind 2 (+0.3 Promise Stone)

Super Points 4

Super Spirit 3 (-0.3 Spirit-severance) (+0.3 Promise Stone) (+1.1 Fragmented Essence)

Super Powers

Impervious Pebble Gourmand's Insight

Color Control Jumper

Vigilant Aegis Unknown

“Huh,” he hummed, immediately feeling a bit of disappointment. “Diminishing returns… well, it’s fine, I still got enough to get an extra power.”

He still let out a satisfied sigh and put the flask into his pocket, glancing towards the broken door out of habit. He’s been keeping an eye on it and the hallway now and then, just in case wanders by. Thankfully, no one did. Not Lightspeed, nor any goons.

His eyes consciously glanced towards the other curtains, looking for Batty. Every once in a while, she'd pop up from within the curtains, take a glance towards him and the door, before disappearing back into the bowels of the bundles of cloth. Evidently, she was looking for something. Or someone.

'She was holding a clipboard last time…’ He remembered, quite vividly, her walking through with a white and gold clipboard.

The only reason he knew it was a clipboard was because of the papers clipped onto it. It looked like an Egyptian tablet otherwise.

'Did ancient Egyptians have clipboards? They used parchments, I think.’ He thought idly before smacking himself. “Focus. Finish this mound and find a good power, which is going to come… now!”

Super Absorb

Super Power: Hind Sight detected. Absorb?

Yes No

“Fuck you,” he cursed instinctively before looking at the label. “'Can see behind.’ Ah, that hind,” he flipped it and continued reading, “'Subject obtains an additional ocular appendage connected directly to their tailbone. The new eye's sight is unimpeded by clothing.’ Fuckin’ butt eye.”

He chuckled, throwing it into his pocket with the others.

“It’s no wonder that door’s made of cardboard. Everything’s practically useless.”

Most of the powers he’d seen so far were bottom of the barrel. If it didn’t give him an extra body part in an unusual or inconvenient location, or both, it’d give him a rare and incurable form of cancer, a debilitating mental illness, or a super STD. None of which sounded fun. Or good.

Each and every single one he put in his pocket was like a drop of water, slowly dripping over the flame was his excitement— death by a thousand disappointments.

"Well… not everything," he muttered as he side-eyed one of the flasks he left on the table.

Diamonds in the rough— although they were less diamonds but more cheap glass marbles that looked prettier and might be more useful than the average piece of shit.

Of course, none of them were 'lightning god transformation’ or 'unlimited strength’ or 'reality bending’, but he could still use them. More importantly, they wouldn’t make eyes sprout where the sun don’t shine.

He shook his head out of the and refocused, grabbing another flask, “'E915 - Delays sleep’. Huh. That seems… not the worst.”

Immediately, suspicion arose. A brief look at the panel that popped up confirmed a disparity.

Super Absorb

Super Power: Personal Debt detected. Absorb?

Yes No

Immediately, the disparity was apparent. He flipped the flask over to look at the 'disclaimer’. “'Self bio-energy manipulation. Has a similar effect to adrenaline(note, no adrenaline found in the subject's system). Accumulated fatigue increases linearly the longer the user keeps the power activated.’ That— that’s all? That doesn’t seem right?”

The names the system gives the powers vary from unhelpfully vague to eerily accurate, but never wrong.

'Still, even if it’s just that, it seems much more useful than the rest. Why is it here?’ He thought for a good minute for a reason, eventually chalking it up to the most basic reason— human error.

He placed it on the 'useful’ table and continued combing through the powers, trying to think creatively in an attempt to give it a semblance of usefulness aside from the short chuckle one would make from its ludicrosity.

'[Acid Tearducts]. Nope. [Kiss of Iron]. Metal, but no. [Self Manicure]. I can already do that. And—’ “Oh, last one.”

An empty pile. Nearly empty at least. Just a single one left before the important decision comes.

'Come on. Last one. Luck on the last one,’ he prayed to the gambling gods, taking a long breath before grabbing the final flask. “'E1956 - Can summon a red two-handed axe.’ That’s not too bad—”

Super Absorb

Super Power: Firefighter detected. Absorb?

Yes No

The panel’s non-existent blue glow somehow stung his eyes as he unblinkingly stared at the name of the power for a painfully long moment. His jaw tightened unconsciously as he tore his gaze away, looking back down towards the flask that disappeared soon after.

A metallic smack came as he attempted to slap himself out of the state of stupor, 'Come on, focus. You still need to pick.’

He filtered for a second time, removing another bunch of the powers he already forgot why he put them there. Thankfully, it didn’t take too long, leaving him with a select few that he really couldn’t decide between.

He took another glance up, making sure there was no one by the door nor was there a Batty taking a look at him before summoning his super information.

Super Information

Super Name None Super Attributes

Super Status Alive, Spirit-severance, Slight Fatigue(Spirit, Mind, Body), Sleep-Deprivation, Promise Stone Super Body 2 (+1 Plain White Shirt) (+0.3 Promise Stone)

Super Quest Road to Heroism IV, A True Hero's Name, An Unknown Power Super Mind 2 (+0.3 Promise Stone)

Super Points 4

Super Spirit 3 (-0.3 Spirit-severance) (+0.3 Promise Stone) (+1.1 Fragmented Essence)

Super Powers

Impervious Pebble Gourmand's Insight

Color Control Jumper

Vigilant Aegis Unknown

'I got around a +2 increase in my Super Spirit since the last time I got a power. Worst case, I can absorb two powers before [Spirit Bloat] appears. Best case… I don’t even know the best case, I have no idea how this works. Baseline, I should pick two powers. Think about the rest later.’ He thought, planning it out. 'I have two defensive powers, one movement, one utility… and one for cooking. Two powers, preferably one for support and one for attack.’

After finalizing his thoughts, he touched the first flask on the table.

“'Slimy Punch’, oh yeah, this one. [Mouthbound Catalyst]”

Super Absorb

Super Power: Mouthbound Catalyst detected. Absorb?

Yes No

Like a few others, the label on the flask did not 100% match the name the system gave it. In fact, one could say it didn’t match at all. In another fact, that’s what Calvin said.

“That really doesn’t match,” he muttered, flipping the flask. “'Slime generated matched the properties of human saliva, excluding DNA. Dries out the subject’s mouth. No additional properties.’ They didn’t really test it much, huh? I have to deduce this shit all on my own.”

He re-read the flask, even though he already had a theory formed from both the name and the description.

“It’s quite elementary,” he murmured to no one, fake-smoking an imaginary pipe and fake-blowing non-existent smoke out before continuing, “whatever is inside their mouth coats their punches. Simple as that.”

Although he wished it was as simple as that. He was only betting on it because there were few other powers that were 'attack-type’. Most were auxiliary, which made sense for the bottom of the barrel.

'Worst case, I can still get somewhat creative with slime— saliva, I guess. At least it doesn’t have negatives. Just that it’s kinda gross,’ he thought. 'Thinking about it, why don't they know how the powers work? I mean, mine felt instinctive enough...'

He put the flask back down and dismissed his imaginary pipe, picking up the next one.

Super Absorb

Super Power: Personal Debt detected. Absorb?

Yes No

“[Personal Debt],” he said out loud. “The name doesn’t match… chances are it’s more than just delaying fatigue. Even if it isn’t, it’s pretty useful by itself.”

He was too tired to put his detective pipe back on to deduce what it 'potentially’ did. Like [Mouthbound Catalyst], it was one with the least negatives. At least one with the least 'obvious’ negatives.

He picked up the third one and read the label, “E713 - Unknown Effect.”

Super Absorb

Super Power: Accumulated Resilience detected. Absorb?

Yes No

This one was simple, and self-explanatory. At least, that’s what he hoped it would be. He’s never really sure, but his guess was the only thing he had to go off of.

'Stockpiling resilience, just like [Vigilant Aegis]… the question is if it’s only 'resilience’ and not full on 'defense’ like the aegis,’ he scratched his chin, 'will they fuse? Or will it be two individual powers that can operate on top of each other? Or are the mechanics totally different from what I’m thinking of?’

So many questions, so little slots. The only other reason why he put it in the useful group, aside from sheer curiosity, was the fact that there were no outwards negatives with the power. At least, as far as he could tell.

'I need a way to take out powers or delete them. Or maybe just a Super Helpful way to find out the mechanics of the power without absorbing it. Hmm?’

After glaring passive-aggressively at the Super Absorb panel, he moved to the next power.

Super Absorb

Super Power: Surface Meld detected. Absorb?

Yes No

A smile crept up on his face as he realized which power was inside the flask. Simple, and mostly unassuming, but the effects were something that nearly made him absorb it out of sheer excitement.

'E1401 - Sticky skin,’ he scoffed at the oversimplification of the uniquely amazing power, flipping the flask to get to the real description, “Attach objects to skin, and vice-versa. Unimpeded by clothing. Works on all states of matter.”

He hummed a particularly catchy theme song as he put the flask back down.

“I wonder if Dox can make something like web-slingers? Super strength can be made up with points… I guess I just need the 'tingle’? Wait, no, he also makes his own gadgets I think. So I need tinker powers— but there’s not a single one here.” He sighed at the multipowered superhero. “Man’s got everything, huh?”

After a few moments of minor delusions, imagining himself swinging web to web while doing cool flips and tricks, he shook himself back to reality, 'It’s a neat power, all things considered. Why they left it here is another mystery though.’ “That leaves us with you…”

He looked towards the last, possibly the most powerful, but definitively the most badass power he put on the table. Unfortunately, it also had one of the most debilitating drawbacks, and a rather stringent and potentially inconvenient condition for activation.

Super Absorb

Super Power: Inkburnt Berserker detected. Absorb?

Yes No

'Name sounds so good,’ he thought before reading both labels. “E719 - Burns tattoos to get stronger—” he flipped it to the more verbose description underneath, “Prerequisite: self-markings(tattoos, temporary ink, or scars from self-inflicted injuries). Permanent hand-made tattoos appear to be most efficient. Burns markings in exchange for superhuman strength. Larger markings generate unquenchable ink-like flames that last until the mark is gone or the object is burnt. Resulting debris appears to be dried ink.”

Badass name. Badass effect. Bad and ass drawback.

“'Subject experiences excruciating burning non-physical pain from the region of the tattoo, equivalent to the strength gained. Physical painkillers have no effect(potential for ability-based pain relief to work). Note: Sedate subject immediately before they go into shock.’ Because of course, there has to be a drawback, why else would it be in the shitty power pile?” He sighed and put the flask back on the table. “It’s cool and powerful, but I have to tattoo or self-harm to use it.”

The hope was [Colour Control] was going to synergize amazingly with the power, which basically gives him free markings whenever he wants. Potentially, it’ll also help him curb the side effects by immediately 'removing’ the marking if the pain gets too much.

'But [Colour Control] isn’t exactly ink,’ he thought.

Despite that, he wanted to take the gamble.

'I wish I absorbed that explosion guy’s powers,’ he sighed, regretting letting the chance slip away. 'Damn it. If only this godawful system could actually fucking tell me how many powers I’ll be able to absorb without turning into the next world-ending cryptid,’ he grumbled, mentally punching the system window while putting down the flask. “Two powers— or not.”

He picked up [Personal Debt], letting the power’s panel shove itself right in front of his face.

There was no other 'support’ type power that was more helpful at the moment and will continue to be helpful in the future. It was also something he wished he had before this, before everything.

“Never again,” he gripped the flask, remembering the effects of [Chronic Fatigue]. “Okay, one more power, five choices— or not.”

He separated [Surface Meld] and [Accumulated Resilience], leaving only two choices: [Mouthbound Catalyst] and [Inkburnt Berserker].

'Two choices, both with their own pros and cons. But I should only choose one… which means.’ He snapped his fingers, turning the two flask’s colour into matte black. 'Completely identical.’

After making sure they were really identical, he grabbed the two flasks and started switching them around, trying to make sure he had no idea which was which.

'This is dumb,’ he chuckled a second later, seeing the two flasks in front of him. It wasn’t hard to remember which was which.

He added back [Surface Meld] and [Accumulated Resilience], changing their colours to a similar black except for a thin stripe of white to differentiate. Another shuffle with his eyes closed while also repeatedly trying to think of other things made sure that he had no idea which was which.

The action also came with the discovery that, unfortunately, the panels could appear even when he had his eyes closed. While helpful to know, wasn’t what he wanted right now.

Thankfully, he was still holding onto [Personal Debt], which obscured the other panels enough to not let him cheat.

'There we go,’ he nodded, now absolutely certain he had no idea which power was in which flask, he pointed to the first fully black flask and started mumbling to himself, “Eenie meenie miny mo. Catch a Lightspeed by the toe. If he hollers, break his nose. Eenie. Meenie. Miny. Mo!”

He grabbed the flask and immediately willed Super Absorb to absorb superbly, making the two panels disappear almost instantly.

Without fanfare, he was greeted by a familiar subtle light from the flasks in his hand. Threads of cool, glowing, and pearly white mist seeped out of the seams at the top of the two flasks, the density incomparable from when he absorbed the [Fragmented Essence].

'Beautiful,’ he thought idly while watching in wonder.

The threads slowly spread out to the side, like the arms of a mother’s warm hug towards her beloved child, before speeding up and immediately piercing through his chest like an assassin’s cold dagger.

“Hooh…” Calvin let out a sound he’d fully deny if likened to a pleasured moan as he felt something much much more than when he absorbed the essence. Something warm-ish filled him up to the brim, in a not-so-weird way.

The light show lasted a shorter time than he remembered, the lines of power fully worming into his chest not even half a minute afterwards.

He kept his eyes on the flask for a long second, somehow feeling weirded out by the fact that nothing about it changed, not the weight nor the size. He pocketed it, along with the feeling, before pulling up the Super Information screen with his fingers crossed.

'Please, please, please,’ he chanted in his head like a bankrupt gambler under a million-credit debt, ignoring the fact that it was essentially his idea to make such an important and life-changing decision into a gamble— into a 'gacha’.

Super Information

Super Name None Super Attributes

Super Status Alive, Spirit-severance, Slight Fatigue(Spirit, Mind, Body), Sleep-Deprivation, Promise Stone Super Body 2 (+1 Plain White Shirt) (+0.3 Promise Stone)

Super Quest Road to Heroism IV, A True Hero's Name, An Unknown Power Super Mind 2 (+0.3 Promise Stone)

Super Points 4

Super Spirit 3 (-0.3 Spirit-severance) (+0.3 Promise Stone) (+1.1 Fragmented Essence)

Super Powers

Impervious Pebble Gourmand's Insight

Color Control Jumper

Vigilant Aegis Personal Debt

Mouthbound Catalyst

Unknown

'Please—’ “Damn,” he sighed as soon as he saw the new powers sitting comfortably on the list. “Well, at least I won’t burn alive? Come on, Super Help. Do your thing.”

Super Help

Personal Debt

Temporarily borrow resources from the Super’s future self. Payment can be deferred or postponed with a proportional increase of interest.

'Resources?’ He tilted his head as he read the power’s description.

Wanting to try it out rather than understand it with the description, he pulled himself into his inner world, looking towards the white orbs that were his powers. He quickly located the two new powers, reaching over to [Personal Debt] to activate it.

“Hmm.. oh. Oh wow, that feels… weird. And good,” he murmured as he felt the power 'restore’ his stamina and spirit to full. Even the fatigue statuses disappeared when he checked. “I wonder. What happens when I— oof…”

He felt everything drain back down immediately as he 'repaid’ the debt. A quick look in his Super Information screen confirmed the fatigue statuses had come back.

'Neat’, He borrowed the 'resources’ again before moving on to the next power. 'I feel like there's more to this, but I don't have time.'

Super Help

Mouthbound Catalyst

Actions and abilities can be augmented or modified by the catalyst currently held inside the Super’s mouth.

'Huh. It’s basically what I thought it would be,’ he smiled, thanking the system that it wasn’t actually just a saliva punch, “Actions and abilities… not just punches?”

He was about to test it out when as a certain woman suddenly popped into his peripheral vision.

Batty was standing nearly where the door was, having worked her way through every curtain, and presumably every corpse inside each one. The clipboard of papers in her hand had also grown thicker.

Whatever she was 'looting’, she was definitely getting the motherload.

He waved towards her which prompted her to wave back before pointing at her wrist, gesturing to her face before imitating Lightspeed’s stoic frown.

Calvin chuckled, getting what she was trying to tell him. He shrugged in return, gesturing that he had no idea where the hero was and what he was doing.

The plan was for him to come to them, so the two were literally just going to wait for him to come up. With his power, it shouldn’t take long. Or that was what they were hoping.

Batty gestured to him again, before pointing at her wrist with more passion this time.

“Ah,” he nodded, raising his wrist and opening up the holowatch’s messaging module.

Me: You good?

The man was in the same network so he should receive it. At least, he assumed he was. He had no idea if there was some top-secret Vanguard network that spanned even the terrorist’s lair.

He looked back up towards Batty and the woman was already gone, “…rude? Whatever, I still have to get rid of the… bloat?”

His eyes widened, closing and opening the Super Information screen to make sure he didn’t see wrong.

Twice, he read it.

Thrice, he let out a 'wait, really?’ or 'no way'.

Fourice, is a weird word.

And five times, he looked back at the flasks as soon as he realized he could absorb another power.

“It’s not there,” he murmured, “Holy moly— it’s really not there. I mean, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be, but with my luck, I thought— so it’s not a one-to-one? A point per power? I guess it makes sense…”

He concentrated and thought back to all the moments he got [Spirit Bloat].

The first time was with [Colour Control], absorbed in Dox’s Lab. He already had two other powers at the time and a Super Spirit value of 1. The next and last time was with Ina, specifically when he absorbed Driver’s power.

'Is it two per point then? I mean, there’s really only one way to find out,’ he thought, eyes glowing in greed.

A buzz interrupted him, coming from his holowatch.

Lightspeed: No.

Lightspeed sent an image

Although annoyed by the interruption, he still opened up the image just in case the man took a picture of himself dying or something. Unlike what he thought, it was just a picture of the control room and its buttons.

He scoffed, “of course it’s like that.”

Me: Just press everything or something.

Lightspeed: Stay alert, security might activate.

Lightspeed: Just do as planned.

Lightspeed: Don’t wait for me.

Me: No time to learn Egyptian, I guess?

Lightspeed: Egyptian? The symbols?

Me: Yeah?

The hero ghosted him immediately after.

Annoyed, he closed his holowatch and cursed the hero to stub his toe on the nearest cupboard or wardrobe. His gaze moved back to the flasks, his head promptly throwing away any thoughts of Lightspeed as soon as he saw them.

'Tattoo fire, wall-crawling, or unknown power?’ He deliberated for a second before reaching over towards a flask. 'Tattoo fire—’

“What are you doing?” Batty’s whisper tickling his ear made him jump and grab the flask.

Out of habit, he just started absorbing it, quickly hiding it behind his back while facing her to hide the flashy 'effects’, “Uh… I— nothing? What are you doing here?”

Her already-furrowed brows deepened, obviously unconvinced by his pathetic attempt to deflect. She sidestepped, trying to see what he was hiding behind him, which Calvin quickly discouraged by leaning.

'Fuck, fuck, come on,’ he prayed his Super Absorb to go faster while also simultaneously cursing himself for absorbing it instantly.

“Kid, what the hell are you— wait, is your chest glowing? What the hell is that?!”

“What?” He looked down, a sigh escaping his lips from both pleasure and annoyance.

The white threads from the superpower circled from behind his back to enter his chest from the front.

“That is some fucking bullshit,” he groaned.

“What is it? Are you okay?” Batty asked, concern filling her voice, looking at the white light with a serious gaze. “Kid…”

“I’m fine,” he shook his head as guilt dripped from his chest, “Haah… you were going to find out sooner or later, I guess. Look, I can—”

Rumble

As if the universe itself took pity on him, luck and good timing threw him a bone in the form of a panic-inducing rumbling that lightly shook the ground and heavily shook their chest.

The air froze. Batty and Calvin both tensed up and looked at the ground. The sound of cogs and gears clanking and whirring inside the walls felt like the doors of hell opening up to spit out their worst nightmares.

“What’s happening?” Calvin asked.

Batty spoke no words, giving the clipboard to Calvin before turning around and gesturing for him to follow.

Calvin nodded, grabbing the other flasks on the table and pocketing them, along with the now-empty one he was hiding behind his back.

The two were carefully sneaking towards the door when a sudden and loud click rang out. The sound of grinding rock followed immediately after, like something was opening.

Batty hurriedly ran to the side, dragging Calvin with her. They hid behind the curtains, eyes peeking out of the seams.

“I can’t see anything,” Calvin whispered as he tried to look for

“Shh,” Batty tapped his mask before pointing towards the middle of the floor.

A single 'tile' of cement, around the size of a person lying down, was slowly shaking before suddenly sliding downwards. Stone ground against stone as a hole opened up where the tile was, filled with darkness, but buzzing with machinery.

Tink

A single golden limb, as sharp as a stake and as large as a branch, struck the cement from inside the hole. Another appeared soon after, landing right next to it. Then, a bulbous body made of metal, gold, and glass skittered up and started looking around, clanging its razor-sharp pincers.

'Holy shit. That’s fucking huge,’ Calvin’s eyes widened at the wolf-sized beetle crawling around. He looked towards Batty who’d gone pale as a sheet, pinching her shoulder to wake her.

Batty flinched, immediately looking at him and letting out a breath. She took a moment to calm herself before nodding to Calvin and gesturing for the both of them to sneak quietly towards the next set of curtains.

Calvin nodded back and the two went on their way, with the more experienced one taking the lead.

They peeked through the curtains, trying to see if there was a beetle nearby. Once they were sure there wasn’t any, the two carefully parted the curtains before running through, dashing one after the other.

They waited silently for a moment, making sure they weren’t caught, before going towards the other curtains and doing it again.

Peek. Check. Dash.

Quickly and surely, they got halfway through towards the broken door before hitting a snag.

'Three,’ Calvin counted, turning back towards Batty and raising three fingers and pointing towards where they were— directly opposite of the curtains in front of them.

If not the sounds of their metal legs stabbing against stone, then the shadows against the curtains were enough to tell them where the beetles were.

Batty gestured for them to back away, putting her palm out to signal for both of them to wait. Calvin nodded and the two started slowly walking backwards. He was slowly making his way when his foot tripped on one of the corpses.

'Shit!’ He panicked as he fell down. Thankfully, he had enough sense to use [Jumper] to soften and quieten the impact. 'That was close. Be careful, dumbass—’, he froze, realizing he was lying directly on the chest of one of the diseased.

He looked towards Batty who had on a face of relief. She gestured for him to stay where he was, which Calvin quickly and intensely replied with his own gesture towards the half-rotten face of the cadaver he was lying on— a gesture thwarted by Batty’s glare shouting 'suck it up’ towards him.

Luckily, it only took a good long minute for the three beetles outside to wander off on their own. Batty helped Calvin up and the two went on to the curtain to take another peek.

After making sure the coast was clear, Batty nodded and dashed out of the curtain, reaching the other side safely.

Calvin let out a breath and ran out as well.

Click

“Motherfuck—”

The block of cement he was running over suddenly shook and depressed, making him lose his balance and stomp against the ground quite loudly.

As he was about to rush to the curtains to hide, the tile suddenly fully went into the ground faster than he could fall. He summoned a stone underneath him and jumped back up and out of the hole.

He got back up and into the curtains just in time to see Batty frozen with her bat in front of her, looking towards a beetle walking slowly towards her.

Clang

Batty flinched from the unexpected sound.

Calvin had already rushed the beetle with [Jumper], using his golden wrench to smack it out of the curtains

“Run!” He shouted, grabbing her by the wrist and jumping out through the curtains and back into the long hallway.

“Behind!” Batty shouted, forcing her wrist out of his grip.

He turned around just as he heard the stereotypical movie-like sound of a plasma gun powering up.

“Dodge!” Calvin was about to tackle Batty down but the gun was a step too fast.

Batty was a step faster, already batting the ball of plasma racing towards them, “Ha!”

The bat in her hand was momentarily covered in a glowing yellow film as it hit the projectile right near the end. The world froze for a moment as if taking a picture of her hitting a ball of hot plasma, unfreezing as a small shockwave spread out from the moment of impact.

The plasma zoomed, more than twice as fast than when it came, back towards the beetle that shot it out. It pierced through, hitting another one behind it with the same furious heat and impact.

“Holy shit,” Calvin exclaimed as he watched the beetles disintegrate in the distance. “You can do that?!”

“Not always,” Batty said, clearly out of breath. “Let’s go before more come—”

“—too late,” He said while rushing towards the hole that opened up earlier, slamming his wrench down against the beetle that just popped up. “We need to hurry. Come on.”

He unceremoniously grabbed her by the waist and quickly used [Jumper] before any protest could come out.

“Wha—” Batty’s voice was drowned out by the speed they were going back towards the door.

“Fuck those beetles— shit!”

Another beetle suddenly popped up from a hole he hadn’t seen, blocking his way with a lance-like pair of pincers.

Out of panic, he quickly threw Batty to the side while he dodged the opposite way.

Curses filled his grunts as he tumbled through a curtain, tripping over the cloth and the corpses. He tried forcing his way out using [Jumper], only to fly upwards with the curtain and hit his head against the ceiling.

“For fucks—”, he gritted his teeth, feeling annoyed, and ripped the cloth apart in anger. “—sake— ah!”

Clang

Thankfully, he saw the attack coming a split second before it did, activating [Vigilant Aegis] to stop the razor-sharp pair of pincers from trying to make him the next Marie Antoinette— or at least the next Nearly Headless Nick.

“Get—”, he smacked the beetle’s abdomen with the wrench, hearing the metal cave in from the impact. He wound his arm back for the second, [Jumper] assisted, swing, “—away!”

The beetle’s insides were practically disintegrated as the wrench tore through. The pincers around his neck immediately relaxed and fell off, freeing him.

He quickly ran back out of the curtained room and into the hallway to look for Batty. She immediately entered his sights and was currently fighting off a beetle with lance-like pincers by trying to push it away with her bat.

“Batty!” He shouted, winding his hand back and throwing the wrench with [Jumper] towards the beetle.

The beetle’s head recoiled as the wrench embedded itself against it’s head. That wasn’t enough to stop it though, as it continued to push against the woman desperately fighting back.

Calvin dashed to kick the beetle off of her, only to be blocked by another one that suddenly flew up. He was about to kick it back down when the spark of electricity came to life from the robot. The beetle glowed as static crackled on its part-glass part-metal carapace.

“Of come on!” He shouted in annoyance while rolling to the side, dodging the beetle’s charge. His shoulder was still nicked by a wing, sending jolts of electricity and pain in his nerves, “Agh!”

He writhed involuntarily but still grit his teeth and forced himself to roll away. Static stung his side as the beetle undoubtedly tried smacking him again with the electrified netting. He got up and kicked the beetle’s glass abdomen, hearing it shatter a bit but also feeling electricity run up his leg.

“Ugh…” He felt dizzy as the taste of blood covered his tongue, undoubtedly from the electricity.

Luckily, his kick wasn’t too useless, as the beetle was thrown through a curtain like he was earlier, and was now struggling to get out.

'Think, Calvin. Don’t touch it. Touching, bad. I need a weapon… or a power—’, his eyes widened as something clicked in his head. He quickly looked around, trying to look for something, 'rubber? No rubber… what’s non-conductive? Uh… stone?’

Panic set in as he saw the robot burn the curtain off of it with the electricity, floating in the air with its exposed and currently shattered abdomen sparking with lightning.

'Glass!’ His eyes widened, quickly turning towards where he smacked the beetle earlier. There were shards of glass on the floor, the same glass it had on its abdomen.

The hum of static tickled his ears, the beetle was quickly flying towards him.

Calvin dove towards the pieces of shattered glass, dodging the charge and grabbing a shard as he passed by. He quickly unequipped the [Plain White Mask] using the system, put the shard of glass in his mouth, and faced the beetle which was preparing a second charge towards him.

“Please work!” He prayed as he punched up against the robot’s abdomen, pulling on [Mouthbound Catalyst] to 'augment’ his attack.

He soon felt the glass shard biting his tongue disintegrate as a pillar of glass shot up from the ground, piercing through the beetle. There was a noticeable but ignorable drain in his spirit accompanying the use of the power, similar to whenever he uses one for the first time.

“Woah,” he whispered, looking at the arm-thick pillar of glass that shot up. It quickly disintegrated into nothing, dropping the beetle it impaled earlier into a mess of gold, metal, and wires on the ground. “I think I like this better than [Inkburnt Berserker]. I wonder what else I can— wait, Batty!”

He looked around in a panic, pausing as he saw the woman beating down a beetle with a golden bat. Around her were two other beetles, wrecked to smithereens. Her breath was heavy and her eyes were in a daze as she continued her beatdown on the 'dead’ beetle.

“Hey!” He ran towards her, ducking down as she swung at him in a panic. “It’s me!”

“Ah—”, light appeared in her eyes as if she only just recognized him. She fell to the ground, tired but alive, “—I’m okay. I’m okay…”

He hesitated, “Are you sure—”

“We don’t have time! There’s going to be more!”

“Right,” he nodded, picking her and her golden bat up. “Where’d you get this?”

She caught her breath, gesturing to the robot, “that wrench you threw.”

“This isn’t a wrench.”

“Question later, run now.”

“Right.”

He ran towards the door, staying alert for any hole on the way. Unlike earlier, nothing else happened. No doorway to the golden beetle dimension. No gang of goons coming down and rushing them. No turrets, nor anything.

“Put me down,” Batty said as they got to the stairwell.

Calvin did as she asked, helping her a little as she stumbled, “No more?”

“Lightspeed must’ve done something,” she guessed, putting her hand out, “that was too abrupt and too little.”

He gave her 'bat’ back before asking, “Should we go down and get him?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head, “he’s a cape. And the plan was to wait or head up.”

With a hesitant nod, he agreed, “you good to go?”

“I have to be,” she nodded. “Let’s go.”