1.14 Slaughter Part 4

The punch goes upwards, connecting with the Sinister Man’s jaw from below. Unlike Leo’s, Joan’s punch actually hurts the Sinister Man, causing the parahuman to stagger backwards.

Where did she learn to punch like that?

And where did she get that much power to put behind it?

To Leo’ shock, Joan follows it up by grabbing the Sinister Man’s arm and twisting it as she kicks him in the back of the knee. The Sinister Man’s features contort in pain before he violent throws Joan away.

When did Joan learn out to fight?

Those are some good moves.

Guardian has used those moves in battle before.

Wait, did Legacy teach Joan how to fight?

Either that or Ceta is in control right now.

It could easily be both.

As Leo gets to his feet, he moves to grab at the Sinister Man, but the hostile parahuman is already trying to get away. As the Sinister Man flees from sight, Leo stops and blinks.

What is going on? Why does my body hurt so much?

We-we were in a fight?

Yes, we were.

Against whom?

A fellow parahuman?

It has to be. No normal person could beat us so.

Or mess with our memory.

I-I vaguely remember fighting a tall man in a suit.

This is troublesome.

***

Leo drops his school bag on the chair after closing the door. While not injured enough to send off to hospital, the school nurse still sent him home after looking him over.

But right now, I’m not worried about my injuries. What is worrying me is the parahuman.

Indeed, we still don’t know the full extent of the parahuman’s powers.

Even his appearance is still fuzzy to remember.

He was a tall and slim man with short black hair and very bland features.

And he still on the loose.

And once he leaves your sight, you forget about him. Even if you see him on video.

Yeah.

We can remember him.

We’re spreading out of the effects of his power between the six of us. It is only one sixth effective on us than it would be on a normal person.

Joan was able to remember the Sinister Man due to Ceta’s defences in her mind, but pretended it was due to Abby’s power affecting her. The two girls had no memory of what happened, but Leo was able to capture the Sinister Man on video. Even if they hadn’t, there was still the aftermath of the fight.

But as soon as the video ended, people would forget about the Sinister Man. Ultimately the police got their officers to describe what they were seeing so they could record their words as evidence.

Leo walks into the kitchen. While he should probably stay at home, it would be best if Gears hunted down the Sinister Man.

“Father,” says Jaylyn, her voice emitting from Leo’s phone, “The Sinister Man is heading to your house. He is almost there.”

He is coming after us?

In our own home no less.

How did he find us?

Perhaps it is one of his powers?

Maybe he just followed us.

“If it a fight he wants, then a fight I will give him,” replies Leo.

In private, I can do a lot more.

Plus we have all those gadgets you have hidden throughout the house.

We still need to be careful to not trash the place.

Now that would be hard to explain to our parents.

“Be careful Father,” says Jaylyn before the call ends.

Leo dashes up to his room where he has stored a basic set of power armour. He quickly puts it on. It doesn’t consist of much, just an exosuit and some Gardium armour plates. No extra gadgets or devices other than the helmet HUD. Nor is the power armour as strong, powerful or durable as a set of Guardsman armour.

Leo grabs a pair of molecular blades that he has hidden away beneath his bed before deciding to go and confront the Sinister Man. As he turns to exit his bedroom, Leo spots the Sinister Man down the corridor at the top of the stairs.

This-this is actually pretty scary.

If it a choice between keeping our family safe and keeping our secret identity…

We will always to our best to keep our family safe.

And that means removing this fiend from our home.

“Well, well, well,” says Leo as he strides forward, “I can’t say I expected you to follow me home, but when I found out you were coming…anyway, did you really think you could just make forget about you?”

Make myself appear more confident than I am.

Good plan.

The Sinister Man is silent as Leo draws both molecular blades. Once he is within two metres, Leo sidesteps as the Sinister Man strikes at him. Also moving inhumanly quick if slower than his foe, Leo slashes both blades at the Sinister Man.

One blade cuts the Sinister Man across the left cheek while the other nicks the side of his chest. The Sinister Man’s facial feature express surprise and he doesn’t react as Leo kicks him down the stairs.

Landing at the bottom of the stairs gracefully, the Sinister Man and Leo stare at each other for several minutes before the Sinister Man decides to leave, moving swiftly. Before Leo can stop him, the Sinister Man is already almost out of the house and Leo decides to just let him leave.

Well, that could have gone a lot worse.

1.14 Slaughter Part 3

Leo rubs his lower arm as he looks at the bandage on it. The True Humanity thugs nicked him with a shallow cut across his right forearm while his left shoulder has a slightly deeper gash. Other than that, Leo only has bruises here and there.

It was good fight.

Aye, we put the other five guys in hospital.

And we don’t need to worry about giving sued between Joan’s connections and that fact they had three guns with them while we were unarmed.

Now only if that were the end of the matter.

Now Leo just has to worry about it making True Humanity pay. Leo has left them alone since even if those people are bigots, he isn’t going to go around beating up people simply because they have disagreeing views to his own.

But then they went and made it personal.

Yes, they have to pay for hurting Joan.

Not disagreeing.

The question here isn’t whether we make them pay, but rather how we go about making them pay.

Leo pulls out his modified phone and brings up the data of local True Humanity members. Rather 

than having Gears beat them up, Leo is finding the idea of their personal data being released to the world rather enjoyable.

Normally he would disapprove of such actions and try and stop such things from happening, but this is a special case.

Why limit it to only the local members?

Indeed. Let’s reveal the data all of national members.

Seems a bit harsh.

Perhaps we should let Jaylyn and Legacy go through all the data and release it as they deem fit.

Good idea. Hmm, when is it that Legacy is returning the physical world?

Within the next three days.

About time we get Guardian back. Man, I have missed having her out in the field. The girl might be weird, but she is easily the best fighter in the Guardsmen.

Leo stops as he turns a corner into a new street on his way to school. As a pair of girls from his school on their way as they usually do, a tall man in a black suit follows them. The man is slim with short black hair and very bland and average facial features.

Who is that?

‘What is that’ would be a better question.

Indeed.

So we do we do?

Alert the others and intervene.

We are a world famous premier superhero.

Gears is, but Leonard Geary isn’t.

Would you let innocents suffer to protect our identity?

No.

As the sinister man walks out towards the girls, Leo marches forward.

“Hey!” calls Leo as the man reaches for the closest of the girls.

Both the girls and the sinister man turn to look at Leo and one of the girls screams as she spots the man. The other girl quickly spots the man and begins to freak out as well. Meanwhile the man just smirks at Leo and strides towards the young man.

It appears we have his attention.

Better us than those girls.

Aye.

We don’t know what sort of powers he has.

Plus we don’t have any equipment on us and the others are unaware of this threat.

Actually we do have one gadget with us. Literally in our hands.

Leo sets his phone to record as he points it at the approaching man.

The video will automatically go to the Guardsmen records.

Alerting Jaylyn as she will know about this the moment it enters the records.

And then our daughter will alert the others.

While we deal with this threat as best as we can until help arrives.

That is my plan.

As the man comes within a couple of metres of him, Leo decides to make the first move. He darts forward and swings a fist at the sinister man.

The man freezes for a moment before reacting very rapidly. If it weren’t for the fact his Bellator reflexes and enhanced mental processing, Leo is sure he wouldn’t be able to track the sinister man’s movements.

As is the case with many of my foes these days.

But Leo is ultimately able to follow the Sinister Man’s movements and while the Sinister Man does move out of the way of Leo’s attack, it is just enough to throw off the punch of a normal person. Leo adjusts the direction of his fist mid-swing accordingly and glancing off of the Sinister Man’s face.

As he steps back, Leo doesn’t look down at his stinging fist as he looks the Sinister Man in the eye. His facial features don’t change at all, but Leo is sure that the Sinister Man is stunned at the fact Leo was able to touch him at all even he doubts the guy was hurt.

He didn’t expect that.

No he did not.

I wonder how we will react.

Leo grins at the man, portraying confidence that he doesn’t feel within. He might be a decently high Bellator Class parahuman, but he is still trapped out in public without any equipment. Not only that, but Leo is certain he was hurt more by the punch than his foe was and that is not a good sign.

I don’t think we can win this one guys. We’re too badly outmatched.

Then let’s go out fighting.

Agreed. We shall go down swinging.

Today, we shall make a good accounting of ourselves.

The man straightens up even further and darts forward at Leo. He dodges the first inhumanly fast punch, but the second catches Leo in the chest. Leo goes flying through the air as he gasps for breath.

Leo crashes into the pavement and he groans. No bones are broken, but his back and the rest of his body hurts like heck. As Leo attempts to get to his feet, he hears to steps of footsteps coming towards him.

As he sits up, he spots Joan of all people coming down the road, right towards him and the Sinister Man.

What on Earth is she doing?!

Coming to help us it would seem.

She doesn’t stand a chance. We don’t stand a chance and we’re a parahuman while she is powerless!

She has some power from being her sister’s “servant” remember.

Stolen power that is the only thing keeping her on her feet rather than a hospital bed! All it does is put her on the same level as a normal person! She doesn’t even have any combat skills!

As the Sinister Man steps past Leo to face Joan, Leo grabs his leg. The Sinister Man looks down at Leo and smiles as he bends down with a hand stretched out towards Leo.

“Leave my boyfriend alone you freak!” yells Joan as she swings a fist at the Sinister Man.