Omnigirl, one of the city’s premiere heroes.
I grimaced, noting that the manager I’d just told to take a hike seemed to go with Omnigirl.
But so be it.
I could take whatever she dished in retaliation.
"What’s up, Zayn?" Stella walked up to me, nervously holding her arm.
"Not much. I’ve been reading last night’s report so I can do my job today.
This is my last day as a hero manager; I don’t want to mess it up." Trying not to upset her, I spoke quietly.
I wanted to make sure Stella began dealing with the fact that we’d be separating further.
I’d half-expected her to show up at my apartment the night before.
"Where’d you stay last night?" I asked, curious about what she’d ended up doing.
She was wearing different clothes today, her hero outfit cleaned and hanging over her arm.
"Oh, back at the manor. It’s not like I have a better place to live.
Though, I’d rather figure something else out.
There’s a lot of terrible memories there." Her eyes wandered around me, a sad look crossing her face, but refocused on me a moment later.
I smirked, knowing I was being at least partially played.
I was sure she did have awful memories at the manor, but she also would say most anything for me to invite her back to my apartment like I had after finding her on the bathroom floor.
"I’m sure you’ll figure something out. You’re a super now after all.
I’m sure most of them have grand apartments somewhere." I started tapping on my tablet again, pretending to be busy so that I wouldn’t see her face fall at my answer.
"Get dressed. From what I’ve been reading, we have some work to do."
I kept tapping on my tablet aimlessly until she headed back out the tent door to go get dressed.
When she was gone, I let out a sigh of relief.
I just needed to stay strong one more day to get back to normal.
It would be easier once she was out of my life.
I stepped into the war room.
The analysts were busy talking and scribbling up on the projection on the whiteboard, playing a complex game as they worked through a structured way to cordon off the sewer systems.
"Where do you need Demoness to start today?" I asked Beatrix, who seemed like the senior staff in the room as she coordinated a few of the other analysts.
At first, she seemed surprised at my question, but then she focused on the whiteboard.
"Here. If we can cut off this large mass, we can close it off here." She pointed to another spot on the map.
"And then we’ll send in pyros to clear out this subsection." She circled a large block of the sewer system.
Other analysts in the room nodded at her statement.
"Alright then. Demoness is heading out in five minutes," I confirmed for her.
Stepping out of the war room, I waited by the hero tent for several minutes, tapping away at my tablet, marking some of the spots that the analysts had labeled as hot spots on their map.
"Ready? I’ll carry you." Stella smiled brightly as she emerged.
She knew I hated being flown around.
"I brought a bike today," I said, pointing to where I’d left it.
"So let’s go. 8th and Kennedy. Four blocks east and three to the north." I directed my arms in case she wasn’t sure where I meant.
"Oh." Stella wilted.
Swinging my legs over the bike, I headed over on 4th street.
Stella glided in the air above me.
"Alright, down you go." I stopped the bike at the intersection.
"The mass should be just over there." I pointed to eastern side of the intersection, checking my tablet for accurate information.
Stella didn’t say anything as she tossed aside the manhole cover and jumped down into the sewer.
The ground shook, and I could tell she was angry.
But I let her take it out on the bactimen, hoping when she emerged that she might be less grumpy.
---
Hearing a ding, I saw a message pop up on my tablet.
"Rocksolid and Omnigirl are headed your direction.
All readings are showing bactimen leaving the outskirts.
We are concerned they are smart enough to know when they are being cornered and will lash out."
I read that line out loud to Stella as she landed.
She had just about finished off a large mass of bactimen.
Double taking at my tablet at the time, I noted that the sun was high in the sky, not believing my tablet.
We’d been at it the whole morning.
We were in a residential downtown area, high-rise apartments shooting up all around us.
This was an older part of town, so a lot of these buildings had two different design styles halfway up the building where they stretched the design to build more on top.
"Do we wait?" Stella asked me.
It was the first time she’d spoken to me since we had left the park.
"No. Omnigirl and Rocksolid aren’t going to be able to do anything against the bactimen," I replied.
She snorted, tossing her hair before she grabbed the manhole cover.
But the moment she lifted it off, green gunk hit her in the face, sending her flying.
It caught me by surprise as well, and I immediately responded, my body moving towards her.
I spoke into my comms. "Stella, report." I tried to hide my concern.
"I’m fine," she grunted. "Just surprised."
I noted that even more green gunk was pouring out of the sewer and filling the street.
It even began breaking through the glass on a nearby grocery store.
The bactiman flowed into the grocery store, consuming everything inside.
I started typing into my tablet, reporting on the new activity.
We have a very large bactiman here destroying the nearby shops, trying to grow larger.
The response came immediately. Understood, help is on its way.
This is likely to be the big one.
The analysts must have predicted this would be the holdout where the bactimen would make their stand.
It would also explain why Rocksolid and Omnigirl were coming.
They were damage control, not actual help.
I grit my teeth, upset that they hadn’t told us beforehand.
Typical heroes.
"Stella, this is the big one. The bactimen are making a last stand.
Try to pull it away from the apartments." Quickly swiping on my tablet, I saw that further north was clear.
"North, two blocks. If you can manage to fight it there, we can prevent casualties."
"On it." Stella swooped down, and her little suckers came out, pecking at the massive blob that was forming in the intersection.
This one was much larger than the one before, but it hadn’t taken on its normal humanoid form yet.
Instead, it was moving like a wave, flowing over the city street.
Stella’s ability was working, but it almost looked like she wasn’t trying.
She certainly wasn’t driving it up away from the residential area.
Grabbing my bike, I swung right by the massive blob on the north side, letting my foot get dangerously close to it.
A green tendril struck out, trying to get me, but I used just a tiny bit of my power to make it look like I avoided it.
"ZAYN! What are you doing?" Stella shrieked.