Super

Chapter 4

[Noah]

        Red Lightning was the first to go.

        Sweet girl, but if you said so, she would more than likely rip your throat out. News of her disappearance stunned the nation just the day after Imperium delivered his warning. Crime rates in New York spiked immediately. Their main villain, a woman called Aquakill, was running rampant with no opposition, and no one knew where or when she was going to strike. Without Red Lightning, there was no one to stop her.

        A meeting for the Hero's League of the Northeast was called almost immediately. We met in Rhode Island, the location of our main base. Hidden underground, it was only accessible if you could punch in the code, which was nothing more than a series of miscellaneous colors, shapes, and numbers, and then you had to say the constantly changing password to the automatic door. This meeting, the password was Red, in honor of our missing comrade. Once inside, everyone was greeted by a blindingly white room with several metal chairs haphazardly arranged in a large circle. In our defense, we didn't exactly have much time to decorate, what with constantly saving the world and all.

        Rhode Island's hero, Teleman, used his powers of teleportation to get us all there. He had to bring us there one by one, so by the time the last person arrived, he was slumped in his chair from exhaustion. Using our powers once was difficult enough, but doing it multiple times with no time to recharge? Practically impossible. I was surprised he was still conscious.

        Eleven heroes came in all. A rather sad number compared to the villains, but I knew that three couldn't make it due to attacks in their own cities, and I wasn't even counting the several sidekicks spread around the area, there to jump in when they were needed. Everyone was in their gear, and if I didn't know any better, I would think we were gathering for a comic book convention. But, unfortunately, we were not in a comic book, where there was a guaranteed happy ending.

        Red Lightning's absence was like a heavy blanket draped on the entire room. Usually, she and her aggressive personality were the ones in charge, despite the fact that she was only seventeen. Without her, no one really knew how to start.

        "So...did everyone's villain warn them? Or was that just me?" Magnet Man asked. He must have been unfocused, because someone's keys were stuck to his leg.

        "Imperium never does anything stealthily, you know that," I said, rolling my eyes. Several people murmured in agreement. Imperium was definitely one to make himself known.

        A relatively new girl whose name I still hadn't learned raised her hand. She was young, maybe sixteen, and her jumpsuit was a little loose. It was white with two black stripes going up the legs, and it had colored paint splattered onto it. "There was no warning in New York. That's probably why they struck there first," she muttered. She seemed rather shy, but I knew that wouldn't last. You can't exactly be timid and save the world at the same time. The only reason she had risen to the actual League itself was because she got herself an arch nemesis of her own.

        "I think we were all warned, except for Red Lightning and the Imitator," Magnet Man said.

        The girl, whose name I now knew, paled. She was probably terrified that she was next. She reminded me of my own little sister, making my brotherly instincts kick in.

        "Well, now you know and you can prepare yourself. We won't let anything happen to you," I reassured her quickly, and several others nodded in agreement. The Imitator still seemed uneasy, but she didn't seem quite as terrified. I hoped that my glowing white eyes weren't adding to her fear. Some people were put off by them, and I couldn't blame them.