Being a Hero

Chapter 12

The song for this chapter is "Wings" by Hurts. There's a place to start listening. ;)

"The heart of an empath is both their greatest strength and greatest weakness. To break the heart of one is to endanger their life." –Bonnie Goss

*Caitlyn's POV*

She just shot Grounder! He was unconscious or worse. And Miss rabbit mask and the wolf were just standing there, watching us approach. If I didn't know better, I'd have said the wolf was smiling. Nothing made sense, and I was pretty sure it wasn't my exhaustion showing.

That wolf...now there was a whole different set of wrong. He—I was pretty sure it was a male by the size—had no reason to be this far south, or in the city, or standing beside a supervillain like they were best friends. And he hadn't torn into downed prey. If she has some influence over animals too, this might be difficult.

I'd never run into another super who could touch animals' minds before, but until a week ago I'd never met another regenerator either. Hitting hard and fast was probably still my best bet, unseat whatever control was present before the other super knew to fight back. I just had to hope it didn't hurt either of the minds before me too badly.

Slingshot, Tempest, and I were more than a match for one super with no apparent ranged abilities and a lone wolf. I flicked both of my batons to full length as I sprinted across the street. Tempest's feet slapped wet pavement beside me, and Slingshot hovered in the air behind us.

"Surrender now, and no one else has to get hurt. You're outnumbered," Slingshot shouted over the pounding rain.

The rabbit mask tilted slightly as the person behind it considered us. Then a lightly accented and amused voice countered, "Yes, you are." She nodded her head towards us, and the wolf lunged.

Tempest knocked the wolf sideways with a contrary blast of wind. You really didn't want to fight her in a storm. She was scary without ever trying. The wolf rolled back to his feet and shook, eyeing us more warily as he circled. The lady was stalking leisurely closer as well.

Slingshot caught my eye for a moment with an unspoken question. I nodded. Time to remove a player. I'd felt carefully around the wolf, sensed the single-mindedness of the hunt, the calculating cunning of searching for prey's weaknesses, and the faint ache of recent injury buried beneath adrenaline. Those radiated loud and clear without having to actually touch his mind and alert his human to my intentions. Now it was time to dive in.

Usually connecting to an animal's mind was calming. Their minds worked more simply than human's—my own included—and had less noise. It was like stepping out of a crowded mall's hallway into an out of the way store. The noise was still there, but easier to ignore and filter out. I expected as much when I pounced on the wolf's mind...and met a razor-edged typhoon.

An unexpected maelstrom of emotion and racing thought tore at me like a riptide. Fury, fear, offense, and malice all turned on me like well-aimed knife thrusts. Get out of my head! A surprised voice rang in my mind.

You're not... I didn't get to complete the thought as he lashed out more pointedly.

~~~

*John's POV*

(start song)

Tempest stood back to back with Whisper as I flew overhead, watching the two circling us. The second the wolf went down, Tempest and I would wheel on—

A strangled scream rent the air, then died just as suddenly. Stunned, I couldn't place the source until something metallic hit the ground beneath me. My blood ran cold as I saw Whisper collapse like a puppet with its strings cut. Down and deathly pale, there was blood running from her nose to mingle with the motor oil and water on the pavement. I've never heard Whisper scream before.