The Metahuman Agency: The Superhuman War

Brand New Day

Jason leaned forward, flashing a grin. On the other side of the cell's glass, Hot Blade glared back at him. He was clutching his own cards in one hand; grasping them so tight they were at risk of being crushed. Jason stared into his eyes, noticing the beads of sweat dripping down the burly man's face.

"Alright," Jason said. "On three. One...two..."

They both showed their cards. Jason sighed and shook his head. "Sorry man...but..." He pointed at his own deck. "I got an aces high. And well, that beats you."

"Fuck!" Hot Blade hurled the cards against his cell window. He kicked the floor, his face turning red. "I hate this game!"

Jason chuckled. He placed his cards back into the deck. He was sitting on a stool outside Hot Blade's cell in the holding cells of the Metahuman Agency. Here, rogue metahumans were held by the Agency for an indefinite period of time, unless they proved too dangerous to hold here. Hot Blade, was not very dangerous. He had been a small time crook who had decided to raid the Museum of Natural History and loot some gems there for fast cash. Unfortunately, his only superpower was very specific. He could heat up swords and make them hot enough to slice through most materials fairly easily. But his power only worked with swords and thus, he was fairly useless if he didn't have one. Not to mention he wasn't that bright.

Jason enjoyed the big lug though and in the past month he had been paying frequent visits to Hot Blade. Hot Blade was enraged by his presence at first but after a bit, accepted that he wasn't going to be released anytime soon and had simmered down a bit. He had grown used to Jason's visits and Jason had fun screwing with the guy, whether through subtle mockery or just beating him at petty games. Hot Blade's reactions to being fucked with were priceless but somehow, Jason thought the crook enjoyed his company on some small level. He had grown to enjoy the visits as well. They certainly provided a lot of levity after the nightmarish events of the month before.

Hot Blade plopped back on his bed. He shook his head or at least tried to. The neck brace he wore made that impossible so he was forced to settle for sitting there looking mad. His facial expression made it look like he was taking a dump. Jason chuckled at the image, raising a gloved hand to slightly cover his mouth.

Jason was of course wearing his costume. It was an armored outfit, light brown in color, complete with a mask that covered the upper part of his head (more like a helmet really). The mask sported a pair of oval eyepieces, which were equipped with a night vision setting. A utility belt was strapped around Jason's waist, which sported all sorts of neat gadgets, and a gun holster was strapped around his thigh. That held his grappling hook pistol, useful for all sorts of situations and the thing had saved his life several times over. What drew most people's eyes though was the emblem of an enormous spider on Jason's chest. It fitted with his motif, powerset, etc. Hence his codename: "The Urban Spider".

Jason normally didn't wear his costume inside the base but he slipped it on during his Hot Blade visits. It wouldn't do to reveal his identity to a criminal after all, even if said criminal was locked up.

Jason raised the deck of cards. "So, we done for the day?"

"You cheated!" Hot Blade barked. He twisted around and raised his right arm. It was his only working arm, thanks to his left one being in a cast. The cast and neck brace were all the result of brutal injuries inflicted on him during his capture at the museum. Jason flinched at the memory. His friend, Audrey, had been the cause of it and it had been very unpleasant to see her nearly kill the man, despite him being a "bad guy". Criminal or not, the excessive brutalization on her part toward Hot Blade had been pretty nasty. Had damn near killed him. But thankfully he'd survived, although with some permanent damage.