The Metahuman Agency: The Superhuman War

Reunion

For a moment, time seemed to slow. Jason could see the man's finger moving in slow motion toward the trigger. He stared down the barrel. He was going to die. He wasn't fast enough to lunge and fight back. Through dumb luck, here he was. On his back and was going to get a bullet in the brain. He tried one last time to move but his body failed to move.

Memories flashed before his eyes in a heartbeat. The ones that were most clear were those from the Agency, being around his friends, his teammates, people who were like him, and the home he had been given. It had all been ripped away and in a second, in a damn second, he was going to be shot. And die. After everything he had been through, everything he had conquered, this was how he died? Executed by an asshole in some backwoods road? Letting Jacqueline and the Skeleton Crew win?

It seemed so.

The mercenary's finger began to squeeze the trigger. In slow motion, Jason watched as the man was about to fire and kill him. He swallowed but he didn't close his eyes. He stared down the barrel, refusing to blink, staring down the gun that was going to end his life.

But then a burst of golden energy slammed into the mercenary's. The blast ripped the man off his feet and he was hurled across the road, slamming into the side of the truck. He crumpled to the ground, bits of his uniform burned off.

The mercenaries all yelled in confusion, raising their guns. "What the hell?!" They all circled around Jason, swiveling their guns in multiple directions. "What was that?! Where'd that come from?"

Jason looked at the mercenary's crumbled body. It couldn't be...

One mercenary suddenly yelled and pointed skyward. "Up there! An object, coming in fast! It looks like...that's not a plane..."

Then Jason managed to smile. It was.

He tried to look and his neck responded to his strained efforts. Jason managed to twist his head and looked up. A human shape was streaking down at them from the sky, a golden blur against the night. Its hands were raised, its scarf flapping in the wind. Jason's trembled, staring with a mixture of glee and happiness as seeing the familiar form of Hiroshi Chenin.

"Metahuman!" One of the mercenaries barked. "Shoot it down!" His men took aim and opened fire. Hiroshi twisted and did a barrel roll in midair, streaks of gunfire zooming past him. He shot over the crowd of mercenaries like a bullet and fired multiple energy pasts into them. Several of the mercs were blasted away, sent flying like bowling pins. Hiroshi streaked upward, zooming back into the sky and began to circle back from another past.

The mercenary barked another order. One of the humvees rolled up next to him and the turret operator took aim up at Hiroshi. Hiroshi broken off his dive, flying left as the turret fired. Gunfire chased him across the sky, the kid barely staying ahead of it.

Jason narrowed his eyes. He tried to lunge at the humvee but his legs turned to jelly and he flopped back to the ground. The merc leader twisted around, his gaze alighting on Jason. He snarled, barely heard over the roar of the turret.

He stalked to Jason and kicked him onto his back. He took aim at the Urban Spider's head.

No.

Jason tried to lunge upward and this time his body responded. Quick as a flash, he grabbed the machine gun's barrel and twisted it, bending it backward. The mercenary's eyes widened. Jason ripped the gun out of his hands and rammed the butt of it into the man's groin.

The mercenary doubled over and Jason slugged him, knocking the man aside with a loud crack. He managed to rise, standing on his still wobbly feet. He could still feel the electricity on his body but he wasn't stunned anymore.