Super

38 - pt 1 - Tick Tick Boom

"May your adventures bring you closer together, even as they take you far away from home." 

– Trenton Lee Stewart

Gold Thrush P.O.V.

Annie looked like she was having a heart attack. Across from her, the air rippled like heat on a road on a hot day. It didn't take a PHD in rocket science to know who had been standing there just seconds before. Seeing as how Annie was still alive and you know, not dead, I knew things must have been semi-okay. Maybe Ciaran proved that the night he got drunk, or maybe not, but for now I didn't have time to mull over his loyalties as I tried desperately to figure out a better plan than the one we had.

Despite the five adults, most of the supers were still looking to me for leadership. Well, me and Electro. Luckily the storm-powered super was showing some serious initiative and taking a lot of attention (and pressure) off of me in the process.

"Hey guys," Pressure Point jogged up, "I heard you needed me. Where do you want me?"

"Hey, Pressure," Electro greeted, letting out a small sigh of relief. "Okay, so not all of the bombs are vacuum bombs, luckily. About ten of them are your standard... Well I don't know much about bombs, but Dresden calls them pipe bombs."

"Yeah," Pressure Point looked grim as he said, "tick tick boom boom... What do you need me to do?"

Pressure Point nodded along as I outlined our plan, even breaking out in an enthusiastic smile at the part he came in. He cracked his knuckles in anticipation and stretched his arms over his head.

"When do we leave?"

"There's no time like the present, right?" I grinned half-heartedly and grabbed Pressure Point around the waist. I felt him flinch a little and I couldn't contain my grimace. It was an oddly intimate pose and I couldn't help wishing it was Karla in my arms.

The world around us blurred as I began running faster and faster, trying to avoid ripping Pressure Point's face off from the G-Force. His sandy hair whipped behind him and his hazel eyes widened from the adrenaline rush my speed was clearly giving him. He whooped loudly and pumped the air with his fists before we came to a stop by one of the bombs. 

Luckily, Obsidian had disclosed the location of each bomb. I guess it was his way of taunting us. He knew we would fail and when we did, we would blame ourselves given that we knew where each bomb was. Within seconds of zipping around the city, I had identified that only two of the bombs were actually vacuum bombs. Coincidentally - or not - they were the two furthest apart... As for the others, they were regular time-bombs. According to the one in front of us, Pressure Point had four minutes and counting to disable them all.

"Looks like you have your work cut out for you," I muttered grimly. "I'll evacuate the area." 

Seconds later, I had zoomed around and ran/flew about one hundred and forty people out of the vicinity. According to the internet, minimum evacuation distance for a bomb like this was somewhere around 70feet. Once there was nobody in that radius apart from Pressure Point and myself, we got to work. Meanwhile, Pressure Point was staring coldly at the bomb, hands outstretched like he was about to shout "ABRACADABRA!" and make a run for it. 

Instead, when nothing happened, I shifted my weight and asked as politely as I could, "um... How long is this supposed to take?"

"Patience, young grasshopper," Pressure Point said through gritted teeth.

"Pressure, you look like you're trying to use the Force or something–"

"Gold Thrush, you know I respect you man, but this isn't as easy as it looks," Pressure Point snapped and I abruptly shut up. He was right, after all. Sometimes, powers were impossible to use. It depended how powerful a super was or how practiced they were at manipulating their powers. For example, super strength came easy to me, but flying and running tired me out pretty quickly.