The next morning, there was a certain tension in the air as I prepared for my day. After everything that was going on, after the Endbringer, preparing the guardians to hold the cleared territory, and discussing our strategies and plans with New Wave, it was finally time to get things started. It was finally time to start tightening our grip on the Empire.

  Once I was through preparing, I tore through my daily list of necessary chores, getting them done early so we were free for the rest of the day. While that was happening, New Wave and the guardian patrols were getting into place, preparing for whatever might happen. My final job, before we settled into place, was to snag Crow from her usual waiting place and bring her to our designated position.

  Finally, when Smokey and his patrol teams were in place, Crow and I had taken our positions as overwatch and backup, and Lady Photon and Manpower were prepared to start their patrol, we finally started our plan. At exactly noon, both of the older New Wave capes shifted from their normal patrols to one that moved into Empire territory. They slowly walked around the outskirts, cutting into their claimed part of town enough to be obvious but not enough that they were too deep behind enemy lines enemy territory. Slowly but surely, they walked across the Empires claimed part of the city, four of my golems following behind them.

  Meanwhile, Crow and I were further downtown, sitting on top of a large apartment building well within radio range. We were on standby, waiting for something to happen and for Lady Photon or Manpower to call us in.

  "You really think they will react immediately?" Crow asked, sitting in the only shaded section of the roof, despite how cold it was.

  "It's possible, so we need to prepare for it," I explained with a frown, letting out a long breath.

  "Who do you think they will send?"

  "How could I possibly know that?" I asked, turning to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "At a guess, I would say they send their movers in, but they only have three, if reports of Purity breaking off are true."

  "Let's hope they are," Crow said with a shiver. "I really don't want to mess around with the flying sun."

  "Yeah, she would be a challenge…"

  Crow snorted, prompting me to pick up a small pebble off the roof and flick it at her, the cloaked cape easily ducking under the half-hearted rebuke. Together, we settled down to wait, the husband and wife duo occasionally subtly checking in through the radio every ten or so minutes. The radios were supposed to be hidden, so no one was taking them out and talking through them. Instead, they were activating them in their pockets, and we would listen to their casual conversations for a few seconds before they would switch it off.

  The pair continued their patrol for a few hours, walking back and forth across Empire territory. Eventually, if we wanted to keep up the facade of a normal patrol, we needed to switch them out for a new team, which meant Glory Girl and Flashbang were next.

  The two groups talked for a few minutes, passing off control of the golems and discussing the patrol, before Lady Photon and Manpower returned home. Once the married duo had left, the father and daughter pair began an almost identical patrol as their relatives, crossing into Empire territory, making it obvious that they were there, even taking pictures with a few brave souls.

  About an hour into their patrol, they stumbled on four noncape criminals as they worked on intimidating shopkeepers along a particular street. They were armed with baseball bats and a single gun, all four of them covered in white supremacist-themed tattoos, and when Glory Girl and Flashbang arrived, they had dragged a shopkeep from his shop and were threatening to burn it down if they didn't pay their protection money.

  The pair of seasoned heroes took them down rather simply, with Flashbang stunning them and Glory Girl disarming them. They zip-tied their hands behind their back, and a few minutes later, the police arrived. The fact that they didn't show up until Glory Girl and Flashbang started getting involved told us just how unlikely it was that any of the criminals were actually going to jail. The Empire's influence on the police was pretty blatant outside their territory. I couldn't imagine it was any better in it.

  Still, the cops at least went through the motions before hauling the Empire members away. Despite the takedown and hand-off going smoothly, someone must have been passed through to the gang's higher-ups, however, as the pair were only patrolling for another five minutes before the cavalry arrived.

  As I predicted, both Rune and Stormtiger showed up, but so did Crusader and Krieg. Flashbang immediately sent us a radio message, informing us that the Empire had arrived and was in force. He quickly told us a nearby location, a landmark I could teleport to, before going radio silent to focus. Immediately, Crow and the golems gathered around me, and I teleported us in.

  After landing by the described landmarks, all of us rushed through alleyways and streets, arriving at our ally's location before anything kicked off. Hearing a nearby monologue of villainous intent, our group paused along one alley, and I peeked carefully around a brickwork corner since it sounded like the action hadn't started yet.

  There, standing and floating in the street, were Glory Girl and Flashbang, as well as our golems. I could see Krieg standing on one of Rune's floating concrete chunks while the girl herself was crouching on a manhole cover. Not far from her was Crusader, a medieval-styled cape with a substantial ten-foot spear. He was flying, or rather being carried by a pair of his ghosts, something I didn't realize he could do. Another cape, Stormtiger, jumped up and over a large truck, clearing the truck bed and landing on its roof hard enough to dent it. He was dressed in a loose pair of pants and a white tiger mask.

  "Flashbang, Glory Girl, I must say, this is not the smartest choice I have seen you make," Krieg said, crossing his arms, before stepping off of his chunk and plummeting to the ground.

  The supposed brute impacted roughly, cracking the asphalt but remaining standing, as if he had just stepped off a curb, not a twenty or thirty-foot drop.

  "I can't imagine-"

  I shook my head, pulling back around the corner as the villain continued to monologue. I turned to Crow, who was psyching herself up behind me. I spotted a fire escape along the wall of the building we were leaning against, so I gestured at it.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  "Do you think you could climb up that and take Rune down?" I asked. "A decisive first strike would be a great way to start."

  "...Yeah, I'll give it a shot," she confirmed, looking up at the fire escape. "Just give me a minute to get into position."

  "We'll wait for you to start us off," I said as she jumped up and grabbed the fire escape railing, neatly and nearly silently pulling herself up.

  She gave me a loose salute once she was on the first walkway, before turning and starting her climb, vanishing into a shadow about halfway up. When I lost sight of her, I carefully looked back around the corner. I could see that Stormtigher had dropped down from the truck cab, slowly walking closer to the heroes.

  "Golems, on my signal, I want you to focus on Stormtiger," I said, my eyes on Krieg. "He isn't extra durable, so be careful not to kill him."

  My target was Krieg, who I already knew was weak to non-kinetic attacks. After my first time fighting him, I asked a few people about what his deal was. Apparently, while he displayed brute abilities, he was not actually tougher than your average person. He was more of a striker or something than a brute, which meant most of my magic would go right through his kinetic control.

  That just left Crusader, whose abilities I wasn't all that confident about, especially seeing that he could somehow fly. My hope was that if everyone else was busy, then Glory Girl and Flashbang could handle him. They already had an advantage over me, since Glory Girl could fly.

  Krieg continued to monologue, with Flashbang prompting and egging him on, most likely waiting for us to arrive. Finally, after nearly a minute, I saw Crow leap off the roof of the building, easily clearing the fifteen-foot gap to land on Rune's manhole cover. It wobbled, and the young villain cape screamed from shock and fear, prompting everyone to look up immediately to see what had happened. I had just enough time to see Crow put Rune on her knees, one hand on her head and another on her arm, holding her in place.

  "Go!" I shouted, and I jumped out from behind the corner, all four golems bursting out as well, charging like a freight train, their sights set on Stormtiger.

  Just as Krieg was about to start shouting at Crow, I fired off a spark of electricity, staying silent as my staff empowered the spell plenty as is. The snap of electricity hit his side, causing his body to seize and him to drop to one knee. He spun his head around to spot me, cursing in German through clenched teeth.

  "Only chance Krieg! Surrender now, and I don't curbstomp you!" I shouted as I stepped out further from the alleyway, firing another blast, this one snapping right over his head and hitting a parked car behind him. "You won't-"

  A pair of crusader ghosts bum-rush me from the sky, attempting to slam their spears into me. I manage to shift just enough to dodge one, only for the second to hit my chest, passing through my clothes as if they didn't exist…

  Only for the spear tip to hit my chest and slip off, unable to puncture my enhanced skin. My heart was frozen for a second before kicking back in as I realized I was fine.

  While I knew my enhancements through geomancy were potent and pretty comprehensive, knowing that Crusader's ghosts were strange and passed through non-organic matter, only to stab through human flesh, had me second-guessing my defenses. I was thrilled to see that the interaction was favorable in my direction.

  "Glory Girl, Flashbang, please take care of Crusader!" I shouted, before waving my staff, letting out a blast of force to push the ghosts back, before thrusting my staff forward. "

  A single spark of electricity, significantly thicker than what I had hit Krieg with, slammed into one of Crusader's ghosts. For a split second, I thought maybe they were immune, but my target flickered and faded away, disintegrating until they collapsed and disappeared. I fired out another blast, slamming into the other ghost, it to disintegrate.

  Unfortunately, Krieg had used the opportunity to his advantage, as he dashed closer and swung, trying to slam his fist into my stomach. I tried to leap back, but he had too much time and his powers were slowing me down, so the blow got through. Despite my defenses, I could feel the power of the hit, the kinetic energy controller throwing considerable effort into it. The blow shattered my shield barrier and lifted me off my feet, flying at least two dozen feet back before slamming into a van, which crumpled under the impact.

  "I hope you are prepared to lose, as I-"

  I didn't listen, instead casting a quick healing spell on myself, just in case I was more damaged than I felt, before peeling myself out of the imprint I had slammed into the van. I half collapsed to my feet before slowly standing. I could feel myself slowing down, pushing against Krieg's kinetic control as he tried to rush me again, trying to keep me from using my ranged attacks. I fought through his manipulation, my feet indenting the asphalt as I struggled to stand up straight, like I was moving through jello. Thankfully, my enhanced strength and speed were just enough to move to the side as he swung, his punch passing by my head and crumpling the van further, almost rolling it over onto its side.

  While my staff was too unwieldy to fight with at this close range, it wasn't my only option. As I dove to the right, I raised my hand, firing a beam of ice that impacted Krieg's feet, fusing them to the ground just enough to make him stumble as he turned to follow after me. It still felt like I was moving in slow motion, the cape seemingly stealing my kinetic energy or something of that nature. Thankfully, I didn't need to rely on punching him.

  As he recovered from his stumble, I flung out a ball of fire that slapped into his chest. It wasn't the hottest or most powerful flame I could conjure, but it was plenty to set off his instincts, as he stopped to pat and brush off the few smoldering tips of his nazi uniform. As he did, I had just enough time for a quick chant.

  "I shouted, conjuring a glowing pyramid above my palm, with arcane symbols on each face.

  The pyramid spun, picking up speed as a bolt of electricity lashed out and slammed into Krieg. He shouted and tried to lunge forward, but the spell fired off again, the pyramid flashing faster and faster. The spell was rapidly draining my mana, but each impact zapped into Krieg, who soon dropped to the ground, his uniform smoking, several palm-sized holes burned into it. Rather than dropping the spell, I spun it around, taking down a trio of Crusader ghosts that were harassing Flashbang. The spell finally sucked the last bits of my mana dry, but not before I took down another pair of clones harassing Glory Girl. With both of the seasoned capes now free, they quickly engaged their primary target, with Glory Girl blasting a half dozen more ghosts with her ritualized palm blaster.

  Meanwhile, Crow was somehow using the cloak I had made for her to create a massive set of gliding crow wings. Rune was still in her arms, now unconscious, her manhole cover slamming into the ground. Crow had the audacity to use one of her "wings" to wave to me, before absorbing them back into her "body."

  Seeing that she had everything under control, despite the many questions I had for her, I turned to check on the golems, finding that Stormtiger was currently unconscious. The shiny constructs had him bent backward over the truck he had jumped on, each of his limbs held out by a separate golem. If I couldn't see his slowly moving chest, I would have been concerned about him being dead.

  It appeared that my golems were a pretty bad matchup for him since he had no chance of blowing them around or damaging them with his powers.

  I looked up, checking on the last target, only to find Glory Girl fist pumping as she held Crusader by the neck of his shirt. The villain was not hanging limply with a new fist print in his chest plate. His spear had clattered to the ground, now in two pieces.

  "Well… that went pretty good," I said with a smile, which quickly shifted to a determined look. "Bring them all in, so I can knock them out more securely, and we can get out of here. Let's not push our luck."

  I quickly put each cape to sleep as they were carried to me, after which we zip-tied and bound each of them. I then teleported all of us, golems and villains included, just a few dozen feet outside the PRT headquarters. I resisted the urge to do something grandiose, instead simply waiting for whoever was keeping watch to contact the heroes.

  They would want to discuss this in detail, no doubt.