Powered Individuals

Chapter 25 - Step Up

I stepped up to the podium and all the murmuring stopped. I cleared my throat and tapped the mic, making sure that it worked. I looked over at my friends and Tristan gave me a thumbs up with a grin. Aer smiled at me and I felt better.

"It's been a difficult past few months," I began, addressing the whole agency body. "Even though we have been beaten down, our laboratories destroyed multiple times, and our demeanor shaken, we have come back and shown the superhero world that we won't let those things keep us vulnerable. That's why I am proud to announce this year's graduating Super Class. Without further ado, please give a hand to the following supers who have earned their rights to go out into the real world and protect it with all they have!"

The superpeople before me erupted into a fit of cheering and clapping as I read off the names of the supers who had graduated. When all the diplomas were distributed and the graduates standing before me, everyone gave them one last round of applause. I smiled widely as my eyes scanned over the kids in front of me, many of them not even a couple years older than myself.

Almost half a year had passed since the last battle in Cardinal City and the deaths of our comrades. I was pushed up to the Assistant Chief at AAPI alongside Sofie, and I couldn't be happier. I may not have used my powers for a while, but I knew that I was making a difference one graduating super at a time.

Aer's wings had fully healed, but she couldn't find the heart to return to the kingdom that she once lived on. Tristan had grown enough experience to walk on his own, and now he barely needed my help getting places.

Ruby never came back. She would occasionally send postcards from the different places that she had gone to, but otherwise there was no other communication between her or any of us.

My team and I uncovered all of Merlin's secrets that he had hidden. I learned that Aer didn't want to help us take down Dead Bolt just because she was mad that he had attacked her kingdom, there was something else. Merlin had taken hostage three of her people, and, in order to get them back, Aer was obliged to work for him. If she didn't do what he wanted, the captured Penna would have been experimented on until they lay, cold and lifeless, on metal tables.

Tristan also had dirt with Merlin as well. He was never born with his powers, he was born normal. He ran away from his foster home one day looking for something to make him special. That's when Merlin found him: shivering on the street, homeless and alone. He offered to give him powers and Tristan, tired of everything and wanting something unique, said yes.

Merlin took Tristan to the agency and brought him to his office. He gave him something to drink, and that's where the stimulating chemical resided. Once Tristan drank that water, his life changed forever.

Tristan was the one who told me about Ruby's deal with Merlin. They grew up at the agency together because Ruby found out about Merlin's secret plans long before everyone else; even before she was an attendee at the agency. When Merlin found out that Ruby knew, he made her promise to keep it a secret and use her skills to do his dirty work.

The main idea with their stories was that the Cardinal Guard was built upon lies. But in the end, we're all heroes, and we're all friends. We lived through it all together, and nothing could break that bond.

And I would never trade my team for the broken and corrupted place that we call the world.

END