Flamboyant Chatoyant

Once they were safely in the car and at their first red light, Eric turned to Coral. “This whole thing wasn’t you, was it?” Coral frowned. “The bodyswap? No, I’d never do anything like that without telling you.” “Really?” Eric asked. “You wouldn’t hide it?” “Okay, I’d hide it if it was funny. But it wasn’t funny.” Eric had to agree on that. “Was it you?” Eric shook his head. “Honestly, it seemed more like you. I mean, you figured it out pretty quickly and Overlord seems a lit

Rainbright – no, Angelica in Rainbright’s body – was standing at the head of the meeting table. All six of them were there, though Scope in Nathan’s body was still getting seated. “We have three more people to wait for,” Angelica said. Nathan looked around. There were two empty seats, not counting the one Angelica was standing behind, and none of the spare chairs had been set out. Who else was supposed to be there? And why did Grapple have such big boobs? No matter where he looked, exc

Enmachina flew over the city, scanning the streets below. He was feeling pretty annoyed. Even though Scanner and Smokescreen had been on the team for a week, he hadn’t been able to see them at all. He knew perfectly well who they were, given that they’d told him their powers. In fact, he’d been the one to tell Angelica about them. He hadn’t even gotten to see Eric’s introduction into the Corps. On the one hand, he understood why Angelica didn’t want them together after they’d been fighting.

Iris faced down her grinning opponent. Behind him rested her target. She prepared herself to run. “Ready?” Hermes asked. Iris nodded. “Three, two, one, go!” He ran forward and kicked the ball past Iris. Iris ran back, watching the world slow around her as she did. She easily caught up to the ball, but before she could kick it, Hermes appeared in front of her. Her power screeched to a halt, trying not to bowl him over. That was an entirely different game. Hermes kicked the ball further and d

Eric woke up to find Coral lying beside him, pink and yellow bracelet in either hand, which were pressed up against the pillow over Coral’s face. He gave Coral a poke. “What’s the matter?” Coral peeked out from under the pillow. “I must be a superhero and I have no pronouns,” Coral said in despair. Right, today was the day they’d be officially introduced to the team, now that all the boring legal and PR stuff was over with. “Ah. One of those days?” He tugged at the pillow, which Coral

As Coral was picking herself up from a fall after her latest sparring session, the master came up to her. “Good work, Coral,” he said. “Beating brown belts now, huh?” “Thanks,” Coral said, mopping her face with a towel. A memory was telling her to bow, but she ignored it. This dojo wasn’t quite as formal as her last one. “And you’ve been green for a while. Think you’re ready to move up?” “Maybe. Can’t do much with my schedule, though.” Coral made a face. “I think you’ve got a

Nathan went over in the morning. Sure, he was supposed to meet up with Eric in the afternoon, but it was Eric’s day off, so he’d be there. Besides, he couldn’t wait. He’d be bouncing off the walls all day and be a nervous wreck by noon. He made the drive to Eric’s apartment, knuckles white on the wheel the whole way. What if Eric wasn’t okay with him being a hero? Or even just having powers? Some people were incredibly weird about that, even if they weren’t at Convert levels of hatred. Conv

Nathan paced in his apartment. Eric and Coral had gotten back just a couple days ago. While he’d been able to ignore it while they were away, Echo and Couronne were a looming threat. Sure, other people were also at risk, but most of the people he knew were his teammates and anyone who attacked his ma was more in danger than she was. Eric and Coral were the only ones without any kind of defense. More importantly, they didn’t even know they needed defense. “What am I going to do about this?”

Nathan clicked and unclicked his pen against the table. The rest of the team was off doing various PR activities: Scope was off at a medical conference as a civilian; Grapple was doing some sort of publicity stunt, a weightlifting competition for super strength; Rainbright and the twins, Iris and Hermes, were at the local schools. That just left him and Angelica, as usual, and Angelica was doing paperwork. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to be back on duty yet. The rules stated that after a

Eric sat on the couch until Coral burst through the door. “Finally,” she said, stripping off her costume. “Rainbright chased me across half the city, and of course you weren’t there so I couldn’t use lightbending so she nearly got me. Ugh. You’d think she’d be a little less inclined to hunt me down after, you know, we saved one of her teammates.” Coral flopped down on the couch. “You all right? Did something happen?” “I saw Enmachina’s face,” Eric said. How was he supposed to tell her this?

Coral hummed and tapped her wheel in time with the radio, creating sparked lights on her hands. It was a very minor power, but still entertaining on the long drive to work. The traffic was light, her gender was female so she wouldn’t get misgendered today, and she’d had pancakes for breakfast. All in all, it was looking to be a great day. Her mood soured as soon as she saw who was managing the shift and standing in the doorway. “Carol,” Nurse Robin Sergeant said. Coral had been very amused

“So, you are awake.” His bed was oddly upright. Nathan blinked. Why was it so dark? And why was he standing up? No, not standing. His feet weren’t touching the ground. He was hanging from his arms. “So, you are awake.” That voice was unfamiliar, so it probably wasn’t something with Eric that had gone weird. What happened? The last thing he remembered, he was fighting… Oh. He was in his suit. That would explain a lot, except why he was upright. And why he was sweating so much. The

Nathan got in the door and immediately flopped on the couch. After a moment, he pulled Raph’s weighted blanket over him. He needed the extra comfort. “What’s going on?” Raph asked, emerging from the bedroom. “What did the doctor say?” “I’m having surgery in a week,” Nathan said. “Scoot,” Raph said, shooing Nathan’s legs from the couch. Reluctantly, he sat up. “Pacemaker surgery?” he asked, sitting down. “I don’t need a battery replacement! I’m perfectly capable of powering t

By the time they got back, Iris, Hermes, and Grapple were waiting in the rec room, draped across the blue couches that lined the room. They all greeted Enmachina as soon as he got in the door. “Everyone, we have a newbie here,” he said. “Act as embarrassing as you can.” They laughed. “Introductions!” Grapple called. She had her hero top on, a sleeveless purple piece of armor with one of her labrys-shaped grappling hooks in white, but jeans underneath instead of black pants. “Right. Usu

It was a lovely day in the city of Candlelight Cove, if one ignored the fact that half of the electricity grid had been knocked out, a skyscraper was shooting lightning into the sky, and five police cars were stuck to said skyscraper. Then again, Nathan supposed, there weren’t any confirmed fatalities after ten hours, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. On the other hand, he hadn’t heard a word about his teammates. Bodycams and radios weren’t working due to the EMPs of the area. The news