61 - Cramming

“How can time move so fast and slow at the same time,” I muttered to myself, turning my phone screen off.

“What?” Su-Bin grabbed my math paper and shook her head. “No, bring the X across, not the Y. The Y’s got exponents, and it’ll go negative, but if you isolate it, you can start breaking it down.”

The late November weather was so much colder than Riverside had ever been. Outside the Student Union Building’s windows, a near-blizzard whipped snow up from the sidewalk and piled it in drifts. It felt like the semester was rocketing by; it’d just been sweater weather, or at least warm enough not to be miserably cold in an evening gown. Now I was bundled up, and even in layers, the wind outside had made my walk to History class painful.

I groaned and did as Su-Bin asked, checking my phone again—ten more minutes. Ten more stupid minutes of math time, then I could disappear back home, get changed, and brave the long, cold walk—or flight—to Superpower Ethics. I just had to survive math time with Su-Bin.

“Hey, how’s the roommate?” I asked. It’d been a good subject change in the past.

“Fine.”

“Fine? She hasn’t been fine all year?”

Su-Bin stared at my homework and nodded. “Now try that on the next problem. Decide whether to work on the X or Y first, and explain why. Then you can try it. They broke up.”

“They broke up?” I started working through the next problem.

“Yep! Now she just cries a bunch, like it’s his fault she was a shallow bitch who was only dating him because he was a sports star or something. Serves her right. It’s so much easier to fucking sleep when she’s just sobbing or sniffling, though. I hope she stays single until after Christmas break.”

“Uh-huh. Alright, so I’m going to work the X on this one?” I half-asked.

“Why?”

“Because, uh, it doesn’t have exponents?”

“Okay, go for it.”

I started working on the math problem. But just as quickly, I realized I straight-up didn’t care. Sure, finals were only a couple of weeks out. And yeah, Su-Bin had been super-helpful in keeping me afloat in math. But it had been almost a month since the TUAES Dogpile Episode, and I hadn’t heard anything about a TUSSA or SSS follow-up. TUSSA’s lack of response wasn’t surprising; Ikenga seemed, for the most part, like someone who wanted the status quo preserved—and was good at that.

But the SSS had to be up to something.

They’d lost the Episode, but their lair was still intact unless the minor-league heroes had gone back. I had a bad feeling the SSS wasn’t done yet. But I couldn’t mix it up with minor-league villains. Not by myself.

“Hey! Are you even trying anymore?” Su-Bin interrupted.

“No. My next class is on my mind,” I said. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ve got my own studying to do, so when you’re ready to listen, I’ll help, but I can’t spend time on you if you’re daydreaming.” Su-Bin stood up, gathering her tray. Her face didn’t look angry, just matter-of-fact. I half-sighed. At least she wasn’t pissed at me.

I packed up my math book, dumped my dishes on the rollers, and bundled up for my walk home.

It was cold as hell. Honestly, that expression had never made sense to me, but it did now. It was so cold that the snowflakes almost burned as they melted on my cheeks. To distract myself, I thought more about my three builds.

I’d slotted [Bit-Part Barrage] into my Understudy build to give it more damage and a ranged option. As good as [Stellar Ray] was, I didn’t need the consistency; I needed something burstier to close out fights, and if I was rotating between Lab Assistant Panic and Magical Girl Rainy Day, I wouldn’t always have that option. I’d also added [Starwave Sail] in for [Rejuvenation].

I’d moved [Check the Script] over to Rainy Day, ditching [Light as Vapor], and grabbed [Rejuvenation] for [Cloudy Disposition]. [Rejuvenation] was too powerful to abandon, and I didn’t need [Light as Vapor] if I was running [Starwave Sail] on Understudy.

I wasn’t thrilled with how many of my Understudy abilities were Drama or Flamboyance, but I didn’t have other options. [Doom Ball] didn’t fit in at all, and without a decent Badass skill, I’d be relying on [Spotlight Strike] for melee damage, which wasn’t quite the same power level as a full Badass power.

There was…one other thing on my mind. Tonight was Friday night, and that meant date night with Bianca. We were going to the sushi place my parents had taken me to if we could get off campus safely with all the snow.

The cold burned inside my nose, the kind of cold that felt dry and that made my nose bleed in the winter if it went too long. I was happy to duck inside Walnut Tower and board the elevator.

“Hey, Anika,” Avan started as I pressed my floor’s button.

“Not today. Got a date tonight,” I said. It wasn’t even a serious question anymore—just a game between him and me.

“Where are you two going?”

“Sushi, then back here,” I shivered a little. “We’re getting an early start; hopefully, we’ll be done before the roads freeze too badly. If not, we’ll figure it out.”

“Alright. Have fun.”

I transformed as soon as I stepped into my room, then jogged through the green room and up the stairs. I hadn’t flown in a long time, and there was no way anyone would see me in this blizzard. “[Starwave Sail]!” The windsurfer materialized under my feet, and I zipped off toward the Mister Felsic Statue, buffeted and battered by the storm.

◄▼►

“’Series Finale: Burning Curiosity!’” The announcer said, his voice echoing from the screen. The giant television showed Mister Felsic glaring at Mindstorm, who was wearing a lab coat. I winced. I hadn’t seen this one, but when Mindstorm was an active villain, she’d been close to the perfect counter to most non-meta/non-mind heroes.

Doctor Jackson cleared her throat as the opening credits started, muting the show. “There’s one type of Episode where an ethics code is both more important than usual and much more quickly to be abandoned. That’s a series finale. How many of you have been through a series finale?”

Theseus raised his hand. So did Gourmet. And, shockingly, so did The Crumb.

“Just three this year? Okay. No introduction. No assignment on this one. Watch Mister Felsic and note where he struggles to maintain his code of ethics and where he overcomes incredible adversity. Don’t worry about Doctor Mindstorm. At this point in her career, she only had one tenet: win.”

The Episode started, and I glued myself to the screen. She was sneaking onto an old missile base; the ilneats had conveniently added a ticking Geiger counter sound to show that it was still radioactive. With her were a handful of men and women in heavy-duty hazmat suits. They hurried past a mostly demolished sign labeled Alpha-01: Lindburg.

I’d heard of Alpha-01. It was a missile base just north of here. The base had come up in high school pre-Launch history classes during the Cold War lessons and in discussions about Launch Day. It had taken at least eight missiles during Launch Day, though most were air-bursts and EMPs, and the ilneat clean-up crews refused to touch it; anything past the fences was a hot zone.

Mindstorm didn’t seem to care. After a moment inside, her skintight black-and-blue leotard started sparking. So did her skin. She was using some power to shield herself. The camera passed in front of her, showing a bead of sweat. She was working hard. Then it hovered in front of one of the researchers, whose suit was labeled Matthew Franks. His eyes were swirling blue portals to nothing.

“Hey, Snack, the SSS told us you went vil,” Gourmet said, leaning over and grinning.

I glared. “Nope. I have a costume that’s…anti-heroic.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” Gourmet took a bite from her apple. "But then I watched your Episode last night. You’ve got it, kid. The spark.”

“No, I really don’t.” I tried to focus on the Episode on-screen instead of the one Gourmet wanted to talk about. Mister Felsic arrived. He was off-camera, but the suddenly red screen and shaking cameras announced his presence all the same. A moment later, there he was; two lava-throwing gloves and a red-and-orange costume on full display. He stopped at the gate and started coating himself in shining black obsidian.

The second he walked through the gate, the camera cut to Mindstorm. She and the research crew ran through a sequence of buttons and codes in one of the bunkers. One researcher—Matthew—kept flipping through binders. Some weren’t marked with the radiation symbol but with a nasty-looking bio-weapons warning.

Then, the whole bunker started rocking. Mindstorm waved. “Keep digging. We want any records from Launch Day. They hadto have done something fishy. Even if they didn’t, we need to know how they moved us all. I need to know how they did it. Such power…” She stalked down the hall toward the bunker’s exit. The researchers didn’t even flinch.

“Snack, Snack, Snack,” Gourmet chided, “There’s nothing wrong with giving in to your criminal urges. Just put on your pretty little lab coat, join up with the SSS, and—“

“Enough.” Theseus snapped under his breath. “I’m trying to pass this damn class. Harass her on your own time.”

That had to be the first time I’d felt grateful toward Theseus. I settled back in my chair and watched as the action picked up.

Shit hit the fan fast. Whatever the obsidian armor Mister Felsic was wearing did, one of the biggest advantages seemed to be resistance to Mindstorm’s thought control. Not immunity; he tripped on nothing a few times and couldn’t aim his lava jets correctly. The two fought back and forth, the ruins of buildings exploding around them and molten, cooling lava coating everything.

Eventually, though, an alarm went off inside. Claxon sirens started wailing across the facility, though most only went off once or twice before petering out. The launch tubes’ doors opened.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Mindstorm yelled. The cameras following the two dueling major leaguers switched to a view of the four researchers. Three panicked as Mindstorm dropped her control, but Matthew Franks grabbed a double-armful of the bioweapon binders and started running not up, but down.

Mindstorm vanished. I knew one of her powers was to mentally willherself to be in another place. She landed in her secret lair, cursing. A camera drone had been waiting for her.

But Mister Felsic couldn’t leave. He wouldn’t leave. Instead, he started riding an eruption that weaved back and forth across the missile launch tubes. Whole feet of lava poured into the tubes, tearing at the ancient, worn-out fuel tubes. The timer ticked down to ten seconds, and the superhero started covering himself in layer after layer of molten rock. Then he stared into the camera. “Alright, super-fans. Remember to stay solidly on the side of good.”

The lava covered his face.

The timer hit zero.

A white flash enveloped the camera drones, all except for one.

As the credits rolled, a man in a tattered hazmat suit limped out of the emergency shelter. He coughed as poisonous fuel fumes poured past his destroyed mask. The camera zoomed in on the half of his name tag that hadn’t gotten destroyed. ‘Matt.’

“Alright. Compare metaphorical notes with your teams about what you saw, or work on cleaning up your codes. And, in case you’re worried, Mr. Felsic lived. He and Mindstorm both retired after this Episode, though. He wanted anonymity, and as part of Mindstorm’s legal settlement for almost nuking the world again, she agreed to retire and go into teaching. And break!”

We worked on removing the parts of our code where we’d been arguing, fighting, or otherwise messing with each other. As we worked, I couldn’t help but be distracted. The Episode stuck with me, and Gourmet kept bothering me even though both Theseus and Fursona were on my side; we needed to try to focus.

Code of Conduct: November 29

• We will not involve Extras

◦ When Extras must be involved, they must be clearly informed of danger

• Destruction of non-corporate/non-government property is unacceptable

◦ Property damage must be directly related to the Episode’s goals

• Medical Extras are off-limits. Healing heroes are not a target unless they directly engage

• Neutrality will be respected

• Finales?

◦ We’ll talk about those later.

The code was finalized, most of the way at least, when Doctor Jackson cleared her throat. “We’ll meet two more times. Next Friday will be a work day to finalize your codes. I recommend you talk to other supers about things they wished they had on theirs. And the Friday after that, you’ll present your codes and justifications to the class as your final assessment. We’ll have a few Extras in attendance next Friday to review your codes from their perspective. I’ll see you all next week.”

I headed for the door, Fursona right behind me, and launched onto my [Starwave Sail]. I could hardly wait for Intro to Drama to end because after that? After that was a sushi date!

But instead, I got a text.

<Hey Understudy, its Honey. I’ve got Jumper’s next plan! - Honeycomb, 12:05>

<Be there or be…a hexagon? God, that’s stupid - Honeycomb 12:06>

Shit, I thought as I typed a quick response and looked for Fursona. The sushi date would have to wait.

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