1.5 Rapids Part 3

It is a press conference with the three members of this ‘Trinity’.

At the fore is the Texas-raised Chicagoan hero Atlas in his red jumpsuit, blue gloves and boots and golden cape. On the front of his chest, Atlas’ ‘A’ is displayed in white.

It looks more like an upside down ‘V’ than an ‘A’.

Agreed.

To the side of Atlas is Lightbringer, a superheroine from Boston and probably the most powerful and dangerous of the Trinity. That powerhouse is clad in a white and gold form fitting bodysuit that shows off her damn near prefect curves with a purple sixteen ray star on her chest.

Not that I care about her looks.

You better not.

At the rear is the Mentalist, who might be the weakest of the Trinity, but is definitely the most terrifying as telekinetic and, seemingly, an all purpose telepath. He wears a black costume that covers his entire body and has a solid, featureless metal mask on his face.

He couldn’t take us.

But I’ll like to see him try.

It would be interesting.

I do have to admit that I would like to see how he would deal with you guys if he entered my mind.

“Hello citizens of the United States of America,” says Atlas in Texan accent, “As you know, we are the unofficial leaders of the Heroes Union and have been dubbed the Trinity. This will be a question and answer session as we will explain our roles and plans to the public. Any questions?”

Several people start speaking out, but Atlas silences them as he points to the first to start speaking.

He should have opened by picking someone rather than leaving open.

Unless that was what he wanted.

“Why has the Department of Superhuman Affairs allowed members of the Heroes Union to conceal their identities from the American public!” demands the man, “What do they have to hide so that they refused to show their faces?”

I don’t like that guy.

None of us like guys like him.

Atlas sighs at this question before he responds, “As Secretary Scott has said, this will help recruit many of those that process powers to the Heroes Union if they don’t have to worry about those that would do them and those that they care about harm if they had open identities. As for whether that works, we have already seen the results as a third of our members joined once they knew that they could maintain their normal lives. As long as the authorities knew their identities and can hold them responsible, it has been decided that the trade-offs are worth it. Any more questions?”

He has a good point there. No need to antagonise more people than you have to.

Especially if those people are potential allies if you play your cards right.

“What about vigilantes such as Guardian, Gears or Lightning Man?” demands a stern looking woman, “Didn’t your sister Alexandria and the Chicago Police Department work with the vigilante Guardian just yesterday even though the DSA state their official policy wasn’t to tolerate vigilante actions?”

We just got mentioned on national TV. That should be good.

We should celebrate our newfound fame.          

Knock it off.

Don’t be a killjoy.

Yeah, no party pooping.

Oh, just be quiet you two.

“That was an exception of course,” answers Atlas, “Despite her power, Alexandria is still just a high school student and the local police department is not equipped to deal with supervillains. To help stop Aquiline and his lackeys before they could inflict more harm on the public, CPD decided to work with Guardian. This also brings us onto the DSA’s policy of prioritising threats. While we don’t support vigilantism, we are going to focus primarily on those that are posing an active threat to the public as the DSA doesn’t have unlimited funds available. So while we don’t approve of what folks like Guardian are doing, we’ll be leaving them alone and focus our efforts on nastier people like Blastout, Washdown, Aquiline and the Darkness.”

They got their priorities straight at the very least.

Don’t complain that they aren’t actively coming after us.

You should never look a gift horse in the mouth.

But only if you’re sure it truly is a gift horse and not a Trojan horse

“What exactly is the government doing with all these captured supervillains?” asks a younger looking man, “No one has seen hide nor hair of them ever since they were taken away by federal authorities.”

I have to admit, I have been wondering the same thing. It is quite worrying.

We could also hack the federal computer systems if we really wanted to find out. That’s what we did with Washdown and how we found out about the superspy lady.

We wouldn’t even need Legacy or Jaylyn as we could easily do it ourselves.

“I was wondering when that would come up,” says Atlas with a smile, “Don’t worry, we haven’t killed them, just imprisoned them somewhere they can’t escape even if they use their powers. We had the fortune to find a law-abiding citizen with ability to create stable pocket dimensions with their own internal laws of physics. We have been using those pocket dimensions to create prisons in which their captives’ powers are unable to function in. At the moment, it has been decided it is the best course of action to protect the public from these unnaturally dangerous people.”

So that is what they are doing with the captured the villains.

It is quite an effective solution.

Agreed. I would like to know more about how it works. Does each pocket dimension counter all of their powers or it is just set to counter their known powers? And in the case of latter, what if all of the prisoner’s powers aren’t known or if how their power works is misunderstood? Do they still work or does the pocket dimension counter that regardless?

No idea Iron.

Before Atlas can say anymore, the TV screen flickers and dies.