Chương 25: No Heroes Coming

Alexander gathered the others in the living room. The wording was grandiose, but the decision was simple. [Veritus Praxis Neuroadaptive Noetic Implant: Series 1 - Ascensus] Congratulations, Alexander. Your Perception is ready to ascend. Ascension is the means through which you shall abandon mundanity, walk amongst the Stars, bend reality to your Will, and Continue your Dream. Are you ready? … > Yes. The implant responded immediately.

His eyes fluttered shut as a strange warmth settled behind them, brushing against the inside of his skull. It didn't hurt. It just felt… strange. Annie made a small sound.

"Whoa." When he opened his eyes, everyone was staring.

"Okay, what the hell just happened?" he asked. Talia tilted her head, tapping away at her tablet.

"We saw motes of golden light. Like dust. They clustered around your eyes, then disappeared through your eyelids."

"You also bled from your eyes," Augustus added, calm as if remarking on the weather. Alexander wiped at his face, coming away with blackish-red streaks. He sniffed it before thinking.

"Oh, that's gross," he said, gagging. Augustus smiled knowingly.

"I had a similar experience when I advanced my Endurance. It was unpleasant, borderline painful, and the clean-up was something else." Alexander couldn't see a difference. A thought brought his status up, which he adjusted to display to show how his stats had grown since the precinct fight. He didn't share it with anyone for the time being. Augustus had requested as much without explanation, only saying that they would understand why soon.

ASCENSION POTENTIAL INDEX (API) Physical Attributes | Strength — 52% → 66% | Endurance — 64% → 71% | Constitution — 50% → 68% | Dexterity — 84% → 87% | Agility — 49% → 65% Cognitive Attributes | Intelligence — 95% → 99% | Processing Speed — 95% → 96% | Perception — 99% → ✧ 101 | Focus — 72% → 84% | Willpower (Self-Actualizing) — 96% → 97% Power Manifestation Technopathy | Class B, Tier 1 | Efficiency — 84% → 88% | Control — 74% → 76% | Output — 26% → 37% | Adaptation — 79% → 80% Electrokinesis | Class C, Tier 1 | Efficiency — 33% → 38% | Control — 17% → 29% | Output — 26% → 35% | Adaptation — 14% → 21% Alexander frowned.

All that effort for what? A little star next to Perception and losing a percentage sign? Talia looked up.

"Do you feel any different?" He sighed.

"Maybe colors are more vivid? Or details a little sharper. It's like I know something's changed, but I can't actually tell. Could be imagining things." Talia nodded, thoughtful.

"That's disappointing," Augustus said, moving behind the couch to the mantel.

"One of the scout snipers in the program ascended Perception first. He developed a type of telescopic vision he could dial in as needed." Annie waved a hand in front of Alexander's face.

"Maybe you can see in the dark." Augustus plucked a small object from the mantel and snapped his wrist. The object spun across the room. Alexander didn't see it, but he felt a vague sense of something coming at him. His head turned on instinct, and a blur crossed his vision just before impact. Thwack. The object struck his forehead and fell with a soft whump. Alexander blinked.

"Did you just—" Annie scooped it up, delighted.

"A teddy bear? It's so cute." The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It was small, well-worn but clean. One eye had been replaced by neat stitching. Alexander rubbed where it struck him. His forehead didn't hurt; it was just offended.

"You threw that at me?"

"I did," Augustus said, returning to his seat.

"That scout was fantastic at spotting movement downrange, and I mean he could spot a mosquito, but he didn't have eyes in the back of his head. You, apparently, do." Talia snapped her fingers.

"That makes sense. Alexander already notices everything around him, even when someone is pretending to try and kill him."

"You still flinched like a dork," Annie added with a grin. Alexander ignored her.

"Then Ascension isn't just breaking limits, it's amplifying what we're already capable of. Perhaps it refines natural tendencies into something more."

"Me next," Annie said, bouncing back into training.

"I'll make it happen tomorrow." Augustus smiled.

"I don't think you can just decide that."

"Watch me." Annie proved herself right. Or maybe just stubborn and competitive. She hit the threshold for Focus early the next day, and the team gathered for the ascension. Golden motes appeared and drifted toward her before they swirled and disappeared into her forehead, followed by a nosebleed of black-red blood. Like Alexander, she didn't feel any different. In fact, she went through most of the day increasingly frustrated with no notable change. That lasted until her daily power-free sparring with Talia.

Usually, the bouts were one-sided with only Augustus giving Talia a challenge because of his size and reach. Annie was different today. She pressed Talia hard. Her movements were sharper, her footwork tighter, and her strikes less wild. Talia countered cleanly, but something was off. Alexander saw it in the way she moved, the calculating expression on her face. She wasn't frustrated by the change, but she was being forced to recalibrate her understanding of Annie's skill.

Ten seconds in, Annie ducked, pivoted, and forced Talia to retreat a step. That never happened.

"Time out," Talia called, shaking her arms.

"Something's changed."

"I didn't… wait, was I doing something?" Annie asked, bewildered.

"Oh, you were doing something alright," Alexander said.

"What did it feel like?" Talia pressed. Annie frowned and spent a moment thinking.

"Like everything else faded into the background. Like it was just me and the fight. There were no emotions, just… purpose."

"Combat hyperfocus," Talia murmured.

"Your ascension gives you clarity while fighting, allowing you to make each move, each strike, with less wasted motion. Your timing was exceptionally precise; it was impressive." Alexander stared.

"You're a murder metronome." Annie grinned.

"Cool. Let's go again."

"Are you sure?" Talia asked.

"I'll have to stop holding back now that I've seen what you're capable of." Annie bounced on her heels.

"I'm gonna make you sweat for once." They both ascended a second time over the next few days.. Alexander's focus on Intelligence culminated with blood seeping from his ears and nose. He'd trained with hacking simulations, memory webs modeled after Talia's power, and drone reprogramming. But it was Augustus' archive of Military Strategy, Cryptography, Game Theory, and Superhuman Studies that revealed its worth. Once ascended, concepts once just out of reach slid into place.

Webs of logic spanned topics seamlessly, and he wondered how he had ever thought he understood them before. Annie's later ascension left black-red trails seeping from her joints, down her spine, and from her ears. Her agility sharpened instantly, and she flaunted it by flipping over furniture and running along railings with a grace that would have taken years to develop. By the end of her first day, Annie could turn a sprint into a ninety-degree slide, barely losing any momentum.

She didn't move any faster than she had before, not exactly, but it was like she could flow from one motion to the next instead of pivoting or redirecting. She always seemed just ahead of the moment. The mix of ascended Focus and Agility also gave her the first win while sparring against Talia. Annie basked in victory for all of thirty seconds before demanding a rematch, which she promptly lost. Talia's ability to adapt and her mastery of everything she saw were genuinely scary.

Alexander couldn't help but notice how each ascension was taking highly refined but normal abilities and pushing them into the realm of mastery with a choice and a single stat point increase. And if that's what a single point can do… It was no wonder that people like Flashpoint were beginning to think themselves gods. With targeted ascensions complete, their pace slowed. They agreed that discipline meant keeping to routine training, rather than chasing a quick solution.

Alexander channeled his impatience into combat training with Talia, which mostly meant getting beaten repeatedly. During the first days of their training, he'd realized that hand-to-hand was going to be crucial in the early stages of his power development. So much so that he'd been training the past few months with weapons that would help take advantage of his Electrokinesis. And Talia had taken to training him with the kind of fervor she usually reserved for her reading.

He'd asked her about that once, and she'd explained that her ability to recall anything with perfect clarity lent itself well to an aggressive information acquisition style. Annie used her extra free time watching more of the psychic corgi. It was during one of those sessions that Annie interrupted everyone, shouting from the living room.

"Guys! You're going to want to see this!" Alexander entered the living room, breathing hard, and with sweat running down his face while his shirt clung to his back. Talia followed, perfectly composed despite a single bead of sweat trailing down her temple. Alexander wondered if it might have been one of his own beads, having defected during the fighting.

"Unfair," Alexander muttered.

"Discipline," she said.

"And years of effort. Years you are only beginning." Augustus emerged from the kitchen, drying his hands.

"Finished your rounds?"

"Barely survived," Alexander corrected.

"I'm convinced she doesn't sweat." Auggy chuckled, joining Annie at the sofa. She was wearing one of the many custom shirts she'd ordered. This one read Team Fuck Flashpoint in big print over a giant middle finger.

"Guys, shut up and look," she said, uncharacteristically serious. The news anchor on-screen looked rattled.

"… we return now to Argentum's escalating crime wave. Authorities are reeling from a new supervillain group behind a string of coordinated attacks with estimates in the tens of millions stolen and over one hundred civilians dead. The latest incident has also left one hero dead and Iron Nadya in critical condition." The feed showed an uptown shopping district packed with fancy galleries, luxury spa salons, fashion boutiques, and jewelry stores.

Many of them were burning, while other storefronts had been smashed open. In the middle of the street, an armored truck lay overturned, metal sides ripped open. Up and down the street were skeletal figures chasing after or dragging civilians behind them.

"The group is still unnamed but is believed to include at least two confirmed prison escapees. Pandora Hex, a meta capable of turning objects into explosives…" Footage played of a gothic woman with a parasol tossing candy onto a car. Moments later it detonated as she skipped away.

"And Mercy Graves, now going by Mercy to the Grave, a former nurse turned life-thief who drains vitality to animate skeletal constructs." The clip shifted to a close up of a faintly glowing skeleton scaling a building as a woman in blood-red scrubs raised her hand toward a fleeing hero.

"Two other members remain unidentified. Eyewitness footage has begun circulating. One survivor asked: 'Where are our heroes?'" Annie leapt to her feet, hands on hips.

"We have to do something!" Alexander almost instinctively pointed out that there were actual superheroes paid for exactly this purpose… but he stopped himself. It was the way she looked at them. With a hint of challenge, sure, but there was more than that. Expectation. And then it hit him. That's how she looked when she came to save me. Annie met his eyes with trust in her own. Augustus twisted the towel and tossed it over his shoulder.

"So, how about it, boss? We could check in on ol' Frank while we're in town." Talia met Alexander's gaze with calm focus, then gave a small nod.

"It's a great opportunity to test ourselves, even if it wasn't the right thing to do." Alexander smiled at Annie.

"Alright, superhero," he said warmly.

"Let's go get our hands dirty."