The loud blast of Silhouette's rifle had everyone pause in place, including the two combatants. A sizeable hole burst away from the side of Roxy's lava-cannon in the making, causing a jet of steam and bright lava to eject out much lower down than intended. Away from everyone present.

"Motherfu-" the super began, before realizing my brother had his sheathed sword up to her neck.

It had only taken the brief distraction of the sniper shot for him to reposition to put her at a disadvantage. Despite the otherwise unwinnable situation, Roxy just grinned. As she moved forward, lava bloomed and hardened across her neck. A slice from any regular sword wouldn't have cut her.

Silhouette stumbled back, taking the tail end of her jab. A pack activated on his suit, ejecting a thick mist around his body, not unlike a Smoke grenade.

"Sleeping dust," Clara noted, putting the end of her sleeve over her mouth. "Don't breathe this."

The cloud briefly obscured Roxy, and her glowing ambers painted the inside of the fog. When she emerged again, I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows. It wasn't clear whether she was coming up with these new ways of using her power on the fly, or maybe I hadn't been privy to all her training. It was impressive either way.

Dried rock covered her lower face like a gas mask. Both arms were also encased in the dried lava, and her shins were in the process of hardening. A prototype of her envisioned stone armor.

Silhouette moved around in his cloud of gas with practiced precision. He was still quicker than the super, and his blunted sword deflected each of her punches. My brother twisted, drawing back his sword to jab inward as Roxy left herself open slightly. A pillar of stone burst up from her foot, blunting the range of the weapon.

Her next punch wasn't in range of the evasive swordsman, but her hand instead flickered brightly, and she fired a blob of lava like a cannon. Silhouette paused in place, his temporary illusory self taking the attack instead.

"She's keeping up," Roy said. "It only takes one punch."

Unfortunately, the speedster was wrong. I glanced to the side to see if my hypothesis was correct. It was.

"No, Rockslide is slowing." Clara shook her head. "It isn't viable to filter her breathing entirely while still being able to breathe."

Delaying the inevitable. Even as we spoke, it was getting clear in Roxy's movements. Sluggish to turn, and her arms had lowered. She searched around to find out where my brother had vanished to, but couldn't spot him. Any parts of her still glowing amber dimmed as her arms lowered further.

Silhouette flickered out of his invisibility, now standing behind her. With his sniper rifle in hand, the barrel pressed against her nape.

"You got me," she grunted.

Another hiss of gas burst from his belt, this second one dissipating the sleeping gas. Roxy dropped to her knees, and the dried stone around her body crumbled and fell away. Silhouette turned from her and threw his rifle up into the air, the weapon then vanishing once it hit its apex.

Roy shuffled uncomfortably in his chair. "If someone pointed a loaded gun to my neck in a friendly spar, I'd lose my cool."

[Do you think proximity is the only thing stopping my brother from killing us if he wanted to?]

The speedster blew out air. "Knew plenty of otherwise dependable soldiers who got complacent with trigger discipline. Just irks me is all."

Considering I had almost killed Roy by turning my arm into an arcane cannon, that seemed like a short-sighted complaint. Then again, it wasn't him in the firing line. We all considered Roxy to be some level of invincible. A high-caliber round point blank in that location would probably kill her in an instant. I trusted Silhouette, but the conclusion was clear.

We needed to become better than him.

I eyed Clara, and she gave me a nod. Hopefully, that meant we were on the same wavelength. Perhaps it was unfair to turn this impromptu social event with the evasive hero into an excuse to work out his strengths and flaws, but… why wouldn't we? Even he knew the fire of growth burned hotter within us compared to any other group in the city.

[Can you run any faster, Roy?]

The distraction worked, as his expression changed as quickly as his thoughts jumped to his own recent improvement. With a grimace, he tilted his head from side to side indecisively. "Feel too exhausted to test, but I know I will be antsy until I do."

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[Best confer with our medical staff.]

Although that just meant a gunslinger with minor healing abilities and a dangerously creative technician, he glanced between them earnestly for approval.

Belle rolled her eyes. "Go ahead if it gets you out of my poncho quicker. I'm going to check on Roxy."

Clara left her chair to dig through one of the black crates by the prefab. She returned with an armband made of yellow latex material. Several wires ran to a small black device on one side. "Monitoring equipment. It will help me develop high-velocity resistance gear."

He nodded and allowed her to strap it around his forearm. "What do you want me to do? To the Meteor and back?"

"That might be too far at first." She glanced over at a pile of rubble about two-hundred feet away. "Just over to the debris and back would be fine."

Roy stood and limbered up his muscles. He looked a little ridiculous in Belle's poncho and whatever remained of his previous clothing. I would have offered him some spare clothes if they'd fit - he was even barefoot now.

Silhouette had propped Roxy up and was helping her walk back over, with Belle moving to join them. The super looked tired, but hadn't fully fallen asleep. Sometimes going toe-to-toe with an opponent wasn't about strength or experience. She had put up a good fight against the S-Rank hero. A real fight wouldn't be on an open plain with limited powers, and I could imagine a few scenarios where she could win over him.

She stepped over and sank into the seat beside me, where the speedster had been sitting. Her held tilted back, and she closed her eyes. "Wish I had been built as a super-soldier," she murmured.

Roy got himself in position and gave Clara a nod to check if she was ready. After tapping a few keys on her laptop, she raised a thumbs-up.

We watched in anticipation as the speedster tensed up. There was a brief hum in the air as he crouched lower.

Then just a blur. A shockwave of dust and air blew over us. Sand and dried rock bloomed into the air around forty feet away, as Roy's limp body slid to a stop on the ground, face down.

"Bloody hells," Belle sighed, stomping away from our group. "He will have to give me some kind of ally retrieval spell at this rate."

"Impressive." Clara typed away at her laptop. "Although perhaps way too soon. Further recovery recommended."

[Was it hyper-speed?]

"Briefly." The techie gave me a nod. "Ironically, it is too fast for his own good. His body needs to acclimate to the increase in G-force, although it will come much more naturally to him than anyone else."

I was going to ask her how she could be so sure, but I knew better than to question her. It was probably like how Roxy could withstand lava without burning herself. An element of magic-adjacent power that paired with their abilities. For Roy, getting hyper-speed would be like any of us suddenly getting super-speed. I could imagine running into lots of walls or parked cars.

"It's been a while since I've had such an interesting fight," Silhouette said as he stood beside us and watched the unconscious speedster. "I would hate to be your enemy."

[I'll also admit to being impressed with your ingenuity and the amount you've progressed today.]

"Oh, please." Roxy kept her eyes closed but smiled softly. "I'm a volcano. Growth happens in bursts. Plus, you were going easy on me."

"It wouldn't be training if I killed you outright, would it?" Silhouette looked down at me with his yellow cyclopean eye as he addressed the techie. "Clara, how far away is the Meteor right now?"

"Three miles."

My brother maintained eye contact with me as his sniper rifle fired from high above us.

"Bullseye," Ren said with a grimace, her rangefinder over her eye.

"You also left a dent," Clara added.

Silhouette shrugged. "My apologies, I tried using the smallest caliber shot I could. Consider it a gift - a reminder that there is always danger lurking, no matter how safe you feel. With that, I will take my leave."

"Being disc- discer-, being an asshole and then leaving?" Roxy asked, sluggish with her words. "Almost like you don't want an invitation back."

[My brother is just awkward and will need to ease into this sort of socialization. He wouldn't want to consider us friends so soon - it would be terrible for his public image.]

His eye flickered in a way that I interpreted as a scowl. "Even if there were some truth to that statement, I have other responsibilities I cannot leave idle to roughhouse in the desert. Until next time, Gunquake."

Before I had a chance to respond, he activated his invisibility, and I felt his presence fade away.

"He was fun," Roxy murmured. "I can think of worse company."

[Certainly my more affable brother.]

She turned her head to face me, opening her eyes as she smiled again. "You see all that shit though? A fuckin' lava cannon."

[I live in constant fear of your true potential.]

The super bit her lip. "Now that is the kind of flattery I could get on board with."

Clara cleared her throat. "How about you tire out the two remaining Disasters so we can call it a day? I tire of the sunlight."

[I could try shooting Belle with Arcane Overload to improve her shield-]

"No," they both said in unison.

The gunslinger was practically dragging Roy back to the chairs, with some half-hearted help from Ren. I could tell the elf's attention was elsewhere. Ever since my brother had shot the Meteor, she had worn a scowl twice as harsh as usual. I wasn't sure why she was taking it so personally, but I secretly thanked Silhouette for pushing that button.

We weren't so different after all.

He had me beat when it came to gadgets as well. Especially without access to my ammunition stores. Most of my utility wasn't much different from military or basic hero level tech. Grenades in a few flavors, plastic explosives, toolkits, and sidearms. I needed… more. Items for every situation.

Belle stumbled slightly and practically discarded the speedster onto the ground about a dozen feet away from our chairs. "Close enough," she sighed.

"I went so fast," he whispered in return.

With a grunt, I pushed myself up to my feet. Synapses were still sore, and I felt like I needed a good nap. There was no rest for the wicked, however. As the elf fired off an arrow toward the Meteor, I stuck my hand out toward Roxy.

[C'mon. As we're both low power, Belle can take us both on at the same time.]

The shielder tried looking for an escape. But there was none.

She eyed us both up before accepting her fate.

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