Chương 79: R&R2 Ch. 18 — Demonic Rematch

Nicholas had hoped that Jasmine wouldn't react as badly to his declaration as he had, but he was reacting just as poorly. Fear had frozen each of them, but it wasn't an option, so he dived into the deep end, even if he was obsessing over his decision-making process. Once the location data was sent, the two of them removed the communicators, flying in silence. Nicholas wasn't going to try and explain himself either, not until Jasmine figured out how and what she wanted to say. He owed her that much.

"I think I know why, but can I still ask?"

"Two reasons: the first is that if this is related to the train, that makes it tangentially our fault in some ways, and I'm not in the mood to leave my mess for someone else to clean up so we have to do it. Second, we are heroes. This is an all hands on deck situation, so if we aren't going to save the day, who's going to?" Nicholas asked. Jasmine had expected a lot of answers, and she hadn't been expecting that one. It was entirely devoid of what she had been expecting.

"Nothing about revenge or facing our fears?" Jasmine gaped.

"I said heroes save the day, didn't I? Just because we are heroes doesn't mean we don't need to save our own day from time to time," Nicholas said with a shrug. Jasmine looked at him for a long moment before bursting out laughing. She didn't know why it was so funny to her, and honestly, she probably shouldn't have considered it funny at all, but it sounded like the most hilarious thing in the world to her. But she could get behind it; saving her own day from time to time certainly sounded good to her.

"Hopefully it'll be easier this time I'm in my offensive load out, we'll be in the open and only fighting the ones that come out from where the main strike team is going in," Jasmine said feeling more confident than she had a minute ago. Nicholas considered for a long moment before deciding Jasmine was certainly in the wrong.

"You realize we're going to face heavy opposition now, right?" Jasmine rolled her eyes; he couldn't be right about that again. Besides, there would be others there to help take the load off them. They weren't the last team to arrive, but they had been the last of the area defenders to arrive. It was going to be a small group out of necessity; this was time-sensitive and there had only been so many heroes up and about.

The only one from the train that the duo recognized was Twister, who immediately joined up with them. They didn't have a method to communicate with her, which was going to be a problem, or that's what Nicholas thought until Jasmine pulled out another pair of telepathic earrings.

"What are these?" Twister asked, holding the blue earrings. Nicholas showed his own ear where the stud was, while Jasmine did the same. Her other ear was where she kept all the protective charms.

"Telepathic communication, though not quite as good as an actual mind link. It lets us communicate at the speed of thought, so if you're going to hang with us, figured we should do that," Jasmine said, explaining. Nicholas had to respect what Jasmine had done, by not telling him he couldn't have disagreed, and he would have disagreed for nothing else besides the principle of the thing he wasn't a fan of the idea of more people hearing his thoughts when he sent them out.

He would have agreed to the mission anyway, since this was a mission too valuable to screw up and increased communication with someone they would work with was valuable. Just because it was right didn't mean he had to like it.

"I hadn't realized that was how you guys did it; we all just assumed you knew each other super well. And didn't need to communicate." Twister said, putting in the earrings and shaking her head to make sure they didn't come loose. Not that they could really. They were enchanted six ways to Sunday from being almost impossible to remove accidentally to interfering for anyone that tried to control them. Not directly, but more making people's attention slide off of them.

It was a much cheaper and safer way to make it, so someone with those powers couldn't target them. Twister stared at them, her face screwed up in concentration. Nicholas was expecting something to come through the earring, but there wasn't anything for him. He turned to look at Jasmine, who was staring at Twister, confused.

"Do you have to turn it on?" Nicholas asked. Jasmine slapped her forehead.

"Yeah, I got this," Jasmine said, snapping her fingers as a spark of emerald energy flew from her hand to the earring.

"Try now." Twister nearly shouted in their ears, trying to get the earring to work properly, and Nicholas flinched, trying to get away from his own ear as Jasmine laughed at him. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Sorry about that. It should be easier now," Jasmine said.

"Sorry, I was just excited, lmao." Twister said as Nicholas flinched again. It had never occurred to him that one could use text language with telepathic communication; it just hadn't occurred to him.

"You're good; it's better than what happened the first time we tried these," Nicholas said, waving it off and putting his musings behind him. He could theorize later they were supposed to be ready to fight soon.

"It wasn't these ones, but yeah, you didn't knock us out, or yourself out. So that's better than the beta test of these went," Jasmine agreed, giving Twister a hug. Nicholas pointedly took a step out of range of them so he couldn't be dragged into the hug, which proved to be wise a second later when Jasmine reached for him.

"So this is how you've been communicating any other secrets to your profound strength that you can share?" Twister asked. Nicholas and Jasmine exchanged a look; it wasn't like Quicksilver and Book hadn't been seen before, but there was a difference between the items being seen and their power and source being revealed. Neither of them were interested in sharing that, so they weren't going to do it.

"You guys can stop staring lovingly into one another's eyes," Twister laughed.

"I was just joking." Nicholas and Jasmine both laughed awkwardly. In hindsight, that should have been obvious to both of them, but no, they hadn't been paying attention. Conversation turned to mundane topics as they prepared. Most of Nicholas's preparations had been completed long before he had ever been sent here, so he mostly took the time to look around and check out the other supers. They were substantially more interesting.

Most of them also had veils up, though he wasn't sure if that was because this city was more paranoid or if they had been told to do so. It could be habit as well, but at least for their team, they had decided against veils. There was only so much time in a day to train, and they couldn't focus on a skill that a million powers would see through. Nicholas's ping was a great example. It didn't matter if you were veiled; if the search parameters were right, it would still reveal them.

Actual stealth builds was a future them problem. As useful as they would be, it wasn't something most heroes smiled upon, and it wasn't something the public enjoyed particularly. Yes, there were some that could pull off the shadow warrior look, but that wasn't them. It was another seventeen minutes before the final member of the spear arrived. Nicholas tried not to stare at the A-rank superhero. It was hard to not do so; Nicholas was stronger than any human and he could bend reality to his will.

Since getting powers, it had been hard to remember sometimes just how far the gulf was. But he was under no illusion about the difference between what he had and what this nameless super had. It also answered the question of why so many of them had veils up. When you veiled your power, you were less susceptible to what other super's presences could do to you. If they had known that the A-Ranker was going to show up, then they would have to hold their power back so they don't get destroyed.

Nicholas and Jasmine took strength from their bond and focused on fighting through the torrent until the A-rank stopped broadcasting his power everywhere. Nicholas could tell when Twister's power flickered out; she veiled herself instead of weathering the storm. The A-Ranker let their eyes rove over the assembled supers their gaze stopping briefly on the two of them. Nicholas glared back; it was irritating. There was a way to make sure your power wasn't bothersome to other people.

That was what he and Jasmine practiced. The A-Ranker's existence seemed to spike, and Nicholas had to do all he could to keep his legs from trembling. He wasn't going to run from this asshole. He could feel Jasmine doing the same. The A-Ranker nodded, and their aura retracted. At the same time, the two of them sagged to the ground, breathing hard.

"That was awful," Jasmine said.

"When we're B-Rank, I'm going to come back and kick his ass with or without your help," Nicholas said in agreement. Jasmine grunted in agreement.

"Aren't you worried he could have heard us?" Twister asked.

"No telepathy," Nicholas said, standing up and stretching as he adjusted to the lack of pressure on his soul. Everything felt like it was back to normal, but it had been tough.

"We could definitely beat him if we're both B-Rank," Jasmine agreed. Twister gaped at them before shrugging.

"It's not like I haven't seen you hit way harder than you're supposed to before, so I believe you guys."

"Awww, thank you, we're definitely specialists on kicking ass," Jasmine agreed. Nicholas flexed his wrists; it was time to go. The A-Ranker must have taken a page from Nicholas's book because instead of a speech, they just indicated that it was time to go, and the whole group that was playing offense soared into the sky as the defenders prepared. Twister exchanged a look with Nicholas and both nodded.

As barriers of wind swirled around the area, forming a barrier of wind, reality warped as Nicholas released the hold on his power." Playroom" Bastions of stone and steel formed walls as Nicholas rose into the sky on his flying sword. He could feel everything with playroom, but it was better when he could see. He had spent his whole life practicing with that sense. If they were lucky, there was no chance that demons would pour out, and the people that fought inside would leave no survivors.

The two of them were under no assumption that they were likely. Her swords hung in the sky, waiting to descend on the first demon that came out. They couldn't protect every angle they could escape from, but that was what the other supers were for. They ostensibly only had to worry about the at tier enemies in their quadrant. That was certainly going to be a lie. Nicholas's preparations were proved to be important less than twenty seconds after he had that thought.

Hordes of imps, most of them only the equivalent of level one, poured out of the hole in the ground. Jasmine's swords descended from the sky. The hilts were buried nearly to the ground when the second wave started.

"I got this!" Twister howled through their telepathic connection as twisters filled the area, rampaging across the battlefield.

"Guess that puts me third in line," Nicholas said simply. With the force Jasmine had used and the winds howling, the swords were not able to get back into the air without his help. When the third wave came, he was ready. Unlike the first two who had been able to hold it back all on their own, Nicholas wasn't able to stop them by himself. The monsters just kept coming.