Stella bounced back quickly as I fed her power.
Her suckers retracted into her body.
I kept my focus on her as I felt another super land beside me.
"Overwatch, on site," a woman wearing a strange set of goggles spoke.
I assumed she was reporting into some communication piece that I couldn’t see.
She tapped the side of her head, and another two lenses swiveled into place in front of her right eye.
Those goggles were part of her super look.
She had a lanky frame and blonde hair pulled up in a tight braid.
Her super suit was light blue and black, almost looking like a robot in its patterning.
"We have termination of..." Her head scanned up and down the street. "All bactimen in a two-block radius. Evidence suggests they converged on Demon."
"Uh, we are right here," I muttered, but she continued reporting.
"Both Demon and her manager are in good health, though Demon appears to be worn out." More lenses rose and fell from her right eye as she gave her report.
Letting my superpower examine her, I determined that she was only a B class super.
And her power seemed to be focused in her right eye, where all the lenses were moving up and down.
"Sorry about that." She tapped on the side of her goggles, dropping the super stern act. "I try to be succinct about reports."
"Can you stand, Demoness?" I tried to use her hero name.
Everyone seemed to stick to them while in the field.
Stella peeked out of one eye. "Maybe a kiss from my prince charming to make me better."
I stopped supporting her.
She fell a little, landing in a crouch.
"Hey," she muttered.
"You’re fine." I shrugged it off. "Overwatch, what do you see outside the two-block radius?"
She tapped on her goggles, letting all the lenses fall away.
"Minor activity. If you can take on what I saw here before, you don’t need to bother with the small stuff."
"So, what are the goggles for?" Stella poked at Overwatch’s goggle strap.
"My power is oversight, along with flight. I can see through things."
"Am I naked right now?" Stella laughed.
"No, but if I were using my ability right now, I’d see right through you and the next few buildings."
I let out a soft whistle. "That’s more than just X-ray vision."
"Yeah, the lenses help block some of my ability. It helps me hone in how much I see through." She tapped the side of her goggles and cycled through the set of six lenses.
"That’s pretty cool." Stella got really close to Overwatch and stared at the lenses from the side.
"I’m not a frontliner like you, but I am one of the best scouts. I can make sure you’re not walking into something different from what we expect." Overwatch seemed content with her role in the whole system.
I looked at her, wondering if there was more to BSH than I gave it credit for being.
My tablet chirped.
Zayn, you two are needed at 17th and Windall. Another mass has been detected. We’ll be sending you and Demon to these sites as we can find them.
I typed back a brief message. Demoness and I are on it.
I knew Stella wasn’t going to like ’Demon’. So I gave them the new name, hoping they’d adopt it.
"Demoness, we have another spot to check out. 17th and Windall."
She gave me a dopey smile and held out her arms to carry me.
"It’s not far. We’ll walk." I turned north and took three steps before Stella scooped me up.
"It’ll be shorter this way," she said into my ear. "Besides, I enjoy carrying you when I can. Also, thank you for trying to change my name."
"You picked up on that?"
"Overwatch did too. She’ll call me Demoness in the future."
"I figure you’d want to separate yourself from the villain Demon if you could."
She nodded rapidly into my back. "Yes, please."
"I’ll do what I can to rebrand you, but there are still a lot of crimes connected to you," I warned.
Stella sighed. "Yeah, but Kim offered to scrub my record if I could play a big part in clearing the bactimen."
My feet dangled above the city street in a slightly disconcerting way.
It was one thing to fly on my own, another to be carried.
But I wasn’t about to complain to Stella.
I was sure she hadn’t felt in control of her life when her power was going haywire.
It made me understand her a little more. "I’ll do what I can to help you," I agreed with a sigh, feeling myself tied closer to Stella yet again.
"You are the best." She squeezed me like a favorite teddy bear.
Seeing 18th street below, I popped her bubble. "You missed your turn. Go back and take a left."
"No problem." Stella swerved midair and took the missed turn.
"Three blocks, right there." I pointed to the intersection.
Stella swooped down, depositing me before landing with a thud herself. "Alright, let’s get these bad boys."
As Stella reached to grab the manhole cover, I stopped her.
"First, we need to work on your ability. Right now, you have to be weak to have your power reach out and do more damage. We need to have you be able to do that when you aren’t weak."
She gave me a slow nod. "If that’s what you think is best."
"Practice on me." I stepped about five feet away. "Try to drain me like you normally would."
Stella pressed her brows down in concentration and lifted her hand as if to grab me, but there was a distance between us.
Wanting to help her speed it along, I watched her power, hoping I could give some tips.
The little suckers writhed just below her skin.
Even as she concentrated, they only just barely poked out of her skin, little flits of blue threads, like bubbles in a boiling pot.