Ericka Stevens barely ducked out of the way as Multiplier shot her with a rifle. “Ack!” She yelped as the bullet defected off something—Rega

Ericka Stevens barely ducked out of the way as Multiplier shot her with a rifle. “Ack!” She yelped as the bullet defected off something—Regalia’s doing, probably—and grazed her side. The high calibre bullet bounced painfully off her ribs, not quite able to penetrate her bodysuit. Thankfully, she was in her light generation form, and her body wasn’t quite physical or matter, anymore. The bullet, without the bodysuit, would have gone through her body, but it wouldn’t have hurt her much. Thanks to Regalia’s largess, anyway. 

Oh, the costume was something she’d been using since the start of her superhero career, roughly four weeks ago? Anywho, Regalia did something with the bodysuit and it became incredibly durable, and self cleaning! She also said that if the fabric was damaged, it would slowly repair itself over time. And the strangest thing was that the bodysuit didn’t look any different. 

After that first, rather disastrous first meeting, Ericka, in her Brilliance persona, often encountered the odd woman. Regalia hadn’t revealed her identity, and neither had her protege, Harakin, but the two pairs had teamed up several weeks ago. Mostly it was because they kept fighting the same set of villains in Brookshield than anything else. Since Regalia could fly, Ericka really didn’t know where her actual base was. Harakin couldn’t take to the skies, but Regalia was more than strong enough to carry her across any distance. 

Despite the rocky start, Brilliance enjoyed working with Regalia, especially since the older cape didn’t seem all that keen to take charge. Most Altered who took up a mantle and cowl, were quite combative and eager to make a name for themselves. Ericka was guilty of the same, and that enthusiasm led to an unnecessary fight. Or maybe it was needed, since it paved the way for later cooperation. 

And she really should pay attention to the fight! Her mind just kept wandering around, and it’s been like that since she was a toddler. Her cousin, Arthur, Speedrun, had all the deets since he was often enough, her babysitter over the past decade. Not that she needed a minder now! She was fifteen! In a few weeks, yeah. 

No, no! Focus, Bri! 

The bullets continued to rip through the air, but she’d long since juked into cover. Her Altered powers were interesting in that they looked diverse, but really, they were but facets of one thing. Hard Light. 

Her glowing form was needed to be able to emit and use her power, otherwise she was utterly mundane. Her flight was a function of the Hard Light around her body that allowed her to move in three dimensions. Her beams were Hard Light projections rather than lasers. They were slower than the speed of light too, but unlike lasers, her beams imparted kinetic force rather than heat. The thing was that the kinetic force came from her movements, which was why she punched the beams out of her fists rather than just point and shoot. Speedrun was convinced that was just a psychological thing, that she should be able to blast beams out of anywhere simply because in her Glow Form, she was practically made out of light, but silly cuz! It was her power, not his!

What was up with his power, anyway? He could move his limbs extra fast, and was protected from the normal effects such movement would normally entail. He could punch at the speed of sound, maybe even faster, but he didn’t create sonic booms that would have burst his eardrums. Nor did his bones shatter when he punched something, or his feet for that matter, when he ran really fast. His torso didn’t suffer the penalties of his limbs moving faster, of his body being brought to such speeds. It was weird as all Fark, and he didn’t even know everything about his powers, and he’s had his for literal years before she had hers! 

At least, she thought it was years…he hadn’t been active, or maybe he was, but under a different alias. He’d been shifty for a while now, but Ericka could only say it was probably because he was a teenager then. He was in his early twenties now, so there was that. Silly Arthur, thinking he knows more than he does. 

Click, click. 

Ah, the guns ran out of ammo? Perfect timing!

She juked back into position, tangentially aware that Regalia and Harakin were busy off to the side, and Speedrun was crouching somewhere else with his hands protectively over his head. His modified motorcycle helmet should protect his noggin from bumps and bullets but his instincts hadn’t been suitably modified to fit his current capabilities. She moved to punch, before pausing for just a single instant. 

A punch would create a beam the width of her fist. The kinetic energy she imparted would be similarly spread out. The beams didn’t just impart her punch’s force, but also increased it the farther way the target was. She couldn’t quite get the hang of altering the trajectory mid-flight, but she knew it was possible. Regalia pointed something out to her, and the idea had percolated in Ericka’s mind for a while now. If a punch’s force got multiplied by a variable depending on distance, then other attacks were just as valid, weren’t they? 

She held out her fist, pressed her middle finger’s nail against the inside of her thumb, then flicked. A narrow beam of white light shot out and slammed into the assault rifle. The barrel dented, but the gun didn’t break in half. But that was fine, it was unusable now anyway. 

The Multiplier clone blinked foolishly at his broken weapon, gaped in surprise, then gritted his teeth as he charged at her. From the way the cement under his feet cratered, it was the merged clone at that. She pulled herself back, then flicked her fingers, her index and her middle, on both hands, in quick succession. Four beams flew from her fingertips, though the disadvantage of using this method was the lower accuracy. Why, she missed two of the finger beams which flew into the warehouse before they hit a pillar and a crate, both with sharp cracks. The two that did hit the clone struck a thigh and an arm. The combined might of who knew how many merges was able to withstand her beams, especially since he was so close to her.

“I’ll take you down!” the Multiplier clone roared, as if the odious man hadn’t said as much every time they clashed. 

“Yeah, yeah, sure you will,” Brilliance muttered under her breath. She sped back a couple of dozen paces, then defaulted back to her punch-beams. The clone was several times tougher than normal, but Multiplier was just a shade above a couch potato, so the effect wasn’t as powerful as one would expect. The man wasted his potential so much that it was maddening, but she supposed it was better he was this way rather than being a competent villain. 

Her twin punches landed on his torso, and this time, the distance and the relative weight of her strike was enough to knock the clone back. It skidded and then remained still for just long enough for her to do a combination attack! Left jab, right straight, left jab, another right! Then a left hook, a right uppercut, then a double hammer blow from above! 

She didn’t even come close to the man and her hard light beams curved to mimic the boxing moves. It was only during these times, and when her mental flow was on the intricate dance, less on the technicals but on the actual movement, that she was able to manipulate the light beams’ direction. Otherwise, all of her punches would have been straight beams. Instead, the hook beam actually curved from her left and struck the clone’s jaw. The uppercut slammed from a low angle, and the hammerblow dropped almost straight down, though the beams’ path went downwards from her fists first before they angled up then over the man’s head. The final blast was enough to pop the clone, and she couldn’t help but grin. 

She glanced at Speedrun, who’d blitzed into the warehouse and had pummeled a dozen clones and thugs in the time it took her to take down the merged clone. She glanced at Regalia and Harakin, then started when a third woman appeared, unmasked, standing above one of the fallen, whose shirt was practically crimson with blood. A soothing hymn floated into her ears and things seemed to slow as she hovered in place. It lasted barely a moment before she was jostled out of it by Regalia’s telekinetic hand.

Then, she was nudged towards the warehouse. Regalia’s face was hidden underneath her helm, but Brilliance didn’t need much imagination to tell the other had a pointed look that said, ‘get on with it.’

She shrugged to herself and flew into the warehouse. The light she shed was more than enough to illuminate the interior even if the warehouse lighting did a credible job. It left a ton of shadows, and she supposed it was useful for that farking Tentacler, who she saw was just on the other side of the warehouse, along with four others. There were dozens of clones in the middle, and perhaps a few other minions. 

“Halt!” she yelled at the masterminds even as they ran towards what she assumed was another exit. Well, of course there was a back door. No villain worth their name would be caught stuck in a box!

The clones opened fire at her, but she ducked behind a pillar after flicking a couple of light beams at them. Where was the original? She didn’t catch sight of him in the bustle, and it would take precious seconds to observe when one of them popped out the clones. 

Speedrun rushed up to the gangsters and knocked them down with his baton. Brilliance always enjoyed watching the dark blur of his limbs as he moved them in superspeed. The crack of breaking bone made her wince though, but then, he did it to neutralise the shooters, Not all of them were bulletproof. 

She flew towards the other five, and shot out a couple of punch-beams at them. Tendrils of shadow darted up from Tentacler’s feet and intercepted the beams. The collision burst the tendrils and negated her attack as well, but the villainess was too used to fighting her and didn’t even hesitate. The first villain reached the backdoor and wrenched it open. A moment later, she slipped out into the alley and Brilliance had little they would escape. There were only four heroes after all, compared to dozens of villains. 

“Coward!” Brilliance yelled, and Tentacler turned back to her with a sneer, then she popped a pill into her mouth. 

“What the fark are you doing?” another villain yelled, but didn’t stop running. 

“You asked for this, you brat!” A forest of dark tendrils emerged and darted towards Brilliance. Some diverged to go after Speedrun. 

“Heh,” she scoffed as she blasted the nearer ones with her punch-beams. The tendrils twisted out of the way with preternatural agility and closed the distance in the blink of an eye. “Ahh!” Brilliance rolled out of the way, but the tendrils adjusted to her position almost before she began the maneuver. Consequently, she was soon wrapped up with shadow tendrils and they started to twist and constrict. 

“Argh!” Brilliance grunted as she flexed her Glow Form’s hard light barrier. It proved barely enough to allow her to slip out of the net before Tentacler could complete the capture. The tendrils were stronger than she expected and her barriers almost shattered too. What the fark did that nutter take?

“Ar—Speedrun!” she yelped as she caught sight of her cousin in a similar bind, and unlike her, Speedrun didn’t have a way to easily break free. 

Thud, thud, thud! Other than slamming his baton against the tentacles anyway. 

The manic look on Tentacler’s masked face wasn’t frightening, not at all!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep